/    LIBRARY     j 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
I  CALIFORNIA 

f          SAN   DIP 


AfTLQ   PORTRAITS  BY 
ESCLDH  NA3TCP3,  VIT1  EM 

OT  L  DnMmTAN-2 


Thorns  VIL  JNG 


DQ3TON 

JQ3EPM  KhlGhT  COnPANY 
MDCCCXCV 


Copyright,  1894, 
BY  JOSEPH  KNIGHT  COMPANY. 


PAGE 

GEORGIANA,  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE 3 

Portrait  by  Thomas  Gainsborough 

MARY,  HONORABLE  MRS.  GRAHAM 15 

Portrait  by  Thomas  Gainsborough. 

EMMA,  LADY  HAMILTON 25 

Portrait  by  George  Komney. 

MRS.  SHERIDAN 37 

Portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

MARGUERITE,  COUNTESS  BLESSINGTON 51 

Portrait  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence. 

MARY  ISABELLA,  DUCHESS  OF  RUTLAND 65 

Portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

LAVINIA,  COUNTESS  SPENCER  . 77 

Portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ELIZABETH,  DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON    .......       89 

Portrait  by  Catharine  Read. 

MARIA,  COUNTESS  OF  COVENTRY    ........     101 

Portrait  by  Gavin  Hamilton. 


ELIZABETH,  COUNTESS  GROSVENOR 

Portrait  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence. 


GDPRGIANA: 

Ducnt55  °ri 

DEVo/TOE 


THE    Dashing    Duchess,  --  the    im- 
pulsive, ebullient    beauty    whose   smile 
swayed   ministers,  and  for  whose  favor 
princes  were  beggars!     A  loveliness  of 
manner,  as    of    feature,  such   seductive 
'color, — glowing  carnations,  —  and  such 
golden-brown    hair,    with    a    fine    figure, 
made    up    an    opulent    personality,    than 
which     no    more    consummate    type    of 
beauty    has    been    preserved    to    us    by 
painter    or   poet. 

Georgiana  Spencer  was  the  daughter  of 
Lord  Spencer,  afterwards  first  Earl  Spencer;  but 
her  impulsiveness,  her  waywardness,  and  improvi- 
dence were  a  legacy  from  her  grandfather,  "Jack" 
Spencer,  the  grandson  and  special  favorite  of 
the  beautiful  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough. 
Her  "  Torismond,"  she  called  him.  His  was  a 


4  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

career  of  profligacy,  a  course  of  error  and  extrav- 
agance. His  mother  was  Lady  Sunderland, 
known  in  society  as  "  the  little  Whig,"  from  her 
small  stature  and  her  persistent  politics.  Her 
party  badge  was  always  worn,  —  the  black  patch 
on  the  left  side  of  the  face,  as  distinguished  from 
the  Tory  fashion  of  wearing  it  on  the  right  side. 
So  Georgiana  came  legitimately  by  her  beauty, 
her  Whiggish  politics,  and  her  versatile  vivacity 
of  manner,  as  well  as  her  improvidence  and 
indiscretion. 

But  her  mother's  strong  character  was  a  potent 
influence.  She  was  the  daughter  of  the  Right 
Honorable  Stephen  Poyntz,  and  was  of  high 
repute  for  generosity,  for  sensibility,  for  charity, 
and  for  courteous  dignity  of  demeanor.  We 
hear  of  Georgiana  being  a  beautiful  child;  and 
Reynolds  as  well  as  Gainsborough,  both  made 
painted  record  of  that  childish  beauty.  Her 
brightness  of  mind  gave  her  an  interest  in  art, 
in  music,  and  in  literature;  and,  though  not 
proficient  in  the  practice  of  either,  she  had 
more  than  the  society  woman's  knowledge  of 
them. 


DUCHESS    OF    DEVONSHIRE.  5 

At  seventeen,  she  married  William,  fifth  Duke 
of  Devonshire,  ten  years  her  senior.  His  was  a 
temperament  antipathetic  to  hers,  —  unsympa- 
thetic, unimpressionable,  and  taciturn,  yet  withal 
of  the  Cavendish  characteristic  persistency  of 
purpose  and  honest  intent. 

The  Duchess  at  once  became  a  queen  of 
society  in  the  Carlton  House  Court.  Devon- 
shire House  was  an  assembly  place  for  the 
Whigs ;  and  its  lovely  mistress  was  the  hostess 
of  many  a  statesman  exalted  by  his  wit,  as  of 
many  a  politician  with  following  by  virtue  of  his 
station.  Like  all  radical  companies,  it  was  a 
motley  mixture  that  found  welcome  there.  The 
Prince  of  Wales  was  a  devotee.  The  then 
shining  Sheridan  was  a  frequenter;  but  with 
the  name  of  Fox  has  that  of  the  Duchess  been 
more  associated  than  of  aught  other.  Her 

O 

supremacy  among  these  companions  was  not 
in  the  manner  of  the  French  Salon  leaders, — 
while  wit,  knowledge,  and  tact  were  hers,  she 
lived  not  by  learning,  but  by  her  liveliness  and 
jollity.  She  was  not  the  scholar  in  politics,  but 
the  politician  among  scholars  out  of  school. 


6  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

It  was  a  roystering,  revelling  company;  and 
political  as  well  as  personal  penury  became  the 
portion  of  many  as  the  result  of  these  improvi- 
dent and  profligate  days.  The  episode  of  the 
Duchess's  career  which  is  most  known,  is  her 
purchase,  by  a  kiss,  of  a  vote  for  Fox  when  she 
was  championing  his  cause  in  an  election,  and 
canvassing  for  votes  in  company  with  her  sister, 
Lady  Duncannon.  It  was  said,  "  never  before 
had  two  such  lovely  portraits  appeared  on  a 
canvass."  A  butcher  bargained  for  his  vote  by 
asking  a  kiss  from  the  lovely  lips  of  the  seductive 
Duchess.  The  price  was  paid,  amid  the  plaudits 
of  the  crowd.  An  Irish  elector,  impressed  by 
the  fair  appellant's  vivacity,  exclaimed :  "  I  could 
light  my  pipe  at  her  eyes." 

Fox  was  elected  for  the  Tory  borough  of 
Westminster,  and  great  was  the  rejoicing  at 
Carlton  House.  A  fete  was  given  on  the 
grounds  the  day  following,  and  the  ordinarily 
well-apparelled  Prince  appeared  in  a  superb 
costume  of  the  radical  colors,  blue  and  buff. 
This  was  the  period  of  the  Duchess's  greatest 
glory,  as  well  as  of  her  most  superb  charm  of 


DUCHESS    OF    DEVONSHIRE.  7 

personality ;  and  it  was  about  this  period  that 
Gainsborough  painted  his  perennially  delightful 
presentment  of  her.  She  was  then  twenty-seven 
years  of  age,  and  had  been  married  ten  years. 
Wraxall  wrote  what  is  probably  the  best  con- 
temporary description  of  her :  "  The  personal 
charms  of  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  constituted 
her  smallest  pretensions  to  universal  admiration; 
nor  did  her  beauty  consist,  like  that  of  the 
Gunnings,  in  regularity  of  features,  and  faultless 
formation  of  limbs  and  shape ;  it  lay  in  the 
amenity  and  graces  of  her  deportment,  in  her 
irresistible  manners,  and  the  seduction  of  her 
society.  Her  hair  was  not  without  a  tinge  of 
red;  and  her  face,  though  pleasing,  yet,  had  it 
not  been  illuminated  by  her  mind,  might  have 
been  considered  an  ordinary  countenance." 

It  is  said  of  Gainsborough  that,  while  painting 
the  Duchess,  "  he  drew  his  wet  pencil  across  a 
mouth  all  thought  exquisitely  lovely,  saying, 
*  Her  Grace  is  too  hard  for  me.' ' 

The  lady  later  knew  the  cuts  of  comment, 
and  the  keen  pain  of  justifiable  jealousy.  The 
rival  in  her  husband's  attentions  was  Lady 


8  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Elizabeth  Foster,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Bristol, 
a  brunette  of  handsome  presence,  and  at  the 
death  of  Georgiana,  in  1806,  she  became  the 
second  wife  of  the  Duke.  There  was  an  appar- 
ent friendship  between  the  ladies,  and  Lady 
Elizabeth  for  a  time  lived  under  the  same  roof 
as  the  Duchess. 

Madame  d'Arblay,  in  1791,  visited  her  at  Bath, 
and  made  record  then  of  her  introduction  to 
the  Duchess,  and  indicated  the  premonition  of 
trouble  in  this  wise.  "  Presently  followed  two 
ladies;  Lady  Spencer,  with  a  look  and  manner 
warmly  announcing  pleasure  in  what  she  was 
doing,  then  introduced  me  to  the  first  of  them, 
saying,  '  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  Miss  Burney.' 
She  made  me  a  very  civil  compliment  upon 
hoping  my  health  was  recovering;  and  Lady 
Spencer  then,  slightly,  and  as  if  unavoidably,  said, 
*  Lady  Elizabeth  Foster.' "  Gibbon  said  of  the 
latter,  that,  "  No  man  could  withstand  her;  and 
that  if  she  chose  to  beckon  the  Lord  Chancellor 
from  his  woolsack,  in  full  sight  of  the  world,  he 
could  not  resist  obedience."  Reynolds  painted 
a  portrait  of  her,  showing  a  bright-eyed,  smiling 


DUCHESS    OF    DEVONSHIRE.  9 

lady,  with  close-curled  hair,  of  girlish  appearance. 
In  Samuel  Rogers's  "  Table  Talk "  are  several 
mentions  of  the  famous  Georgiana,  and  especially 
one  which  tells  of  her  love  for  gambling.  "  Gam- 
ing was  the  rage  during  her  day ;  she  indulged 
in  it,  and  was  made  miserable  by  her  debts.  A 
faro-table  was  "kept  by  Martindale,  at  which  the 
Duchess  and  other  high  fashionables  used  to 
play.  Sheridan  said  that  the  Duchess  and 
Martindale  had  agreed  that  whatever  they  two 
won  from  each  other  should  be  sometimes  double, 
sometimes  treble,  what  it  was  called.  And  Sheri- 
dan assured  me  that  he  had  handed  the  Duchess 
into  her  carriage  when  she  was  literally  sobbing 
at  her  losses,  she  having  lost  fifteen  hundred 
pounds,  when  it  was  supposed  to  be  only  five 
hundred  pounds."  A  life  such  as  she  then  led 
surely  affected  her  appearance.  In  1783,  Wai- 
pole  wrote :  "  The  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  the 
empress  of  fashion,  is  no  beauty  at  all.  She 
was  a  very  fine  woman,  with  all  the  freshness 
of  youth  and  health,  but  verges  fast  to  a 
coarseness." 

The  offspring  of  the  Duchess  Georgiana  were: 


IO  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Georgiana  Dorothy,  afterwards  Countess  Carlisle, 
whose  letters  were  lately  published,  and  exhibit  an 
original  observation  and  a  terse  style  of  record; 
Henrietta  Elizabeth,  later  Countess  Granville ; 
and  a  son,  who  succeeded  to  the  Dukedom. 
About  the  latter's  birth  was  some  mystery; 
insinuation  was  active.  The  Duchess  had  little 
liking  for  domestic  life,  so  normal  neglect  of 
child  may  have  been  construed  into  an  unnatural 
dislike.  Her  son  never  married.  Through  the. 
stress  of  the  home  infelicity,  her  beauty  waned ; 
but  her  bearing  and  breeding  kept  her  para- 
mount in  her  set.  She  is  known  to  this  later 
generation  only  as  a  superb  beauty  who  stands 
with  such  opulent  charm  of  costume,  and  of 
fine  hauteur  of  manner,  amid  the  noble  groves 
of  Chatsworth  —  as  the  once  potential  original 
of  Gainsborough's  greatest  portrait.  "  The  bust 
outlasts  the  throne,  the  coin  Tiberius." 

A  most  pathetic  tribute  to  the  beauty  of  the 
Duchess  was  paid  by  "  Peter  Pindar"  (Dr.  Wol- 
cot),  who  addressed  "  A  Petition  to  Time  in 
favor  of  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,"  and  im- 
plored the  Inexorable  thus:  — 


DUCHESS    OF    DEVONSHIRE.  II 

"  Hurt  not  the  form  that  all  admire. 
Oh,  never  with  white  hairs  her  temple  sprinkle  ! 
Oh,  sacred  be  her  cheek,  her  lip,  her  bloom  ! 
And  do  not,  in  a  lovely  dimple's  room, 
Place  a  hard  mortifying  wrinkle. 

'  Know  shouldst  thou  bid  the  beauteous  duchess  fade, 
Thou,  therefore,  must  thy  own  delights  invade  ; 
And  know,  't  will  be  a  long,  long  while 
Before  thou  givest  her  equal  to  our  isle. 
Then  do  not  with  this  sweet  chef-d'oeuvre  part. 
But  keep  to  show  the  triumph  of  thy  art." 

A  dramatic  fate  has  befallen  the  original  can- 
vas. In  1875,  it  was  sold  at  auction,  and  was 
bought  by  a  firm  of  dealers  for  the  then  highest 
price  paid  for  a  single  picture  in  England.  The 
publicity  gained  by  this  was  taken  advantage  of 
by  the  purchasers  to  exhibit  the  picture.  One 
morning  when  the  gallery  was  opened,  the  frame 
only  was  there ;  the  picture  had  vanished.  The 
famous  canvas  is  lost. 


MARY  Trif|-pH°RAbLr 

MD5  GRAHAM. 


LIKE  the  happiest  countries 
that  have  no  history,  the  tran- 
quil life  of  joyous  content  leaves 
little  to  chronicle.  Only  in  the 
nobility  of  character  of  a  husband 
who  grieved  her  loss  for  years, 
and  in  his  strong  dignity,  and  de- 
votion to  her  memory,  do  we  get 
a  hint  of  the  gracious  and  good 
lady  whom  Gainsborough  has  made 
immortal  for  us. 
And  in  that  phrase  of  her  lifetime, 
"  lovely  Mary  Cathcart,"  is  a  whole  biography 
of  benignity  and  beauty.  She  came  of  one  of 
the  most  ancient  and  noble  families  in  Scot- 
land, and  was  the  daughter  of  the  ninth  Baron 
Cathcart,  called  "  Cathcart  of  Fontenoy."  Her 
brother  William  became  the  tenth  Baron,  and 
afterwards  the  first  Earl  Cathcart.  He  had 


1 6  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

studied  law,  but  abandoned  it  for  the  army,  and 
had  a  gallant  career  therein  ;  becoming  a  lieu- 
tenant-general in  1801,  and  commander-in-chief 
of  the  expedition  to  Copenhagen  in  1807;  after- 
wards acquiring  reputation  as  ambassador  for 
several  years  at  St.  Petersburg.  He  was  per- 
haps the  earliest  of  British  noblemen  to  marry 
American  beauties  ;  having  wedded  the  daughter 
of  Andrew  Elliott  of  New  York,  in  1779. 

In  November,  1774,  there  was  rejoicing  among 
the  retainers  of  the  House  of  Cathcart,  for 
there  was  to  be  a  double  wedding.  The  eldest 
daughter,  u  Jenny,"  was  married  to  the  Duke  of 
Athole, — that  same  Duke  who  became  a  friendly 
patron  of  Burns,  and  in  reference  to  whom  the 
poet  writes,  when  addressing  some  verses  to  him: 
"  It  eases  my  heart  a  good  deal,  as  rhyme  is  the 
coin  with  which  a  poet  pays  his  debts  of  honor 
and  gratitude.  What  I  owe  to  the  noble  family 
of  Athole,  of  the  first  kind,  I  shall  ever  proudly 
boast ;  what  I  owe  of  the  last,  so  help  me  God, 
in  my  hour  of  need  I  shall  never  forget." 

The  second  sister,  the  Hon.  Mary,  was  married 
to  Sir  Thomas  Graham  of  Balgowan,  a  descend- 


THE    HONORABLE    MRS.    GRAHAM.  IJ 

ant  of  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  and  of  Graham 
of  Claverhouse.  The  youngest  sister,  Louisa, 
later  became  Countess  of  Mansfield,  and  her 
portrait,  by  Romney,  —  a  seated  profile  figure 
with  flowing  draperies,  —  is  that  artist's  most 
masterly  work. 

After  eighteen  years  of  happy  married  life, 
she  died  childless ;  one  of  those  good  women 
that  were  — 

"  True  in  loving  all  their  lives,"  - 

"  a  surpassing  spirit  whose  light  adorned  the 
world  around  it."  Her  husband  grieved  greatly. 
He  was  ordered  to  travel  to  divert  his  despair. 
He  visited  Gibraltar,  and  there  the  dormant 
martial  spirit  of  his  ancestors  was  aroused  by 
his  environment.  Though  then  forty-three  years 
of  age,  he  immediately  entered  the  army  as  a  vol- 
unteer. He  rapidly  rose  in  his  profession,  and 
had  an  especially  brilliant  career  in  the  Peninsular 
War.  In  1811,  he  became  the  hero  of  Barossa, 
and  in  the  same  year  was  made  second  in  com- 
mand to  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  He  was 
created  Lord  Lynedoch  of  Balgowan,  Perthshire, 


1 8  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

and  frequently  was  thanked  by  Parliament  for 
his  services.  Sheridan  said,  "  Never  was  there 
a  loftier  spirit  in  a  braver  heart."  And  alluding 
to  his  services  during  the  retreat  to  Corunna, 
he  said,  "  Graham  was  their  best  adviser  in  the 
hour  of  peril ;  and  in  the  hour  of  disaster,  their 
surest  consolation."  Scott  eulogizes  him  in  the 
poem,  "  The  Vision  of  Don  Roderick,"  in  the 
lines,  — 

"  Nor  be  his  praise  o'erpast  who  strove  to  hide 
Beneath  the  warrior's  vest  affection's  wound, 
Whose  wish  Heaven  for  his  country's  weal  denied  ; 
Danger  and  fate,  he  sought,  but  glory  found. 

"  From  clime  to  clime,  wher'e'r  war's  trumpets  sound, 
The  wanderer  went ;  yet,  Caledonia,  still 
Thine  was  his  thought  in  march  and  tented  ground ; 
He  dreamed  mid  Alpine  cliffs  of  Athole's  hill, 
And  heard  in  Ebro's  roar  his  Lynedoch's  lovely  rill. 

"  O  hero  of  a  race  renowned  of  old, 
Whose  war-cry  oft  has  waked  the  battle  swell ! " 

Old  Dr.  John  Brown,  of  Edinburgh,  wrote  of 
a  late  Duke  of  Athole :  "  Courage,  endurance, 
stanchness,  fidelity,  and  warmth  of  heart,  sim- 
plicity, and  downrightness,  were  his  staples." 


THE    HONORABLE    MRS.    GRAHAM.  19 

They  are  ever  the  staples  of  the  Scotch  char- 
acter, and  they  were  all  pre-eminent  in  Sir 
Thomas.  His  life  was  noble,  and  his  affection 
was  faithful  to  its  early  troth. 

A  pathetic  history  attaches  to  this  picture  of 
Mrs.  Graham :  When  its  subject  died,  the  sor- 
rowing husband  had  it  bricked  up  where  it  hung, 
and  it  was  only  by  an  accident  that  it  was  dis- 
covered at  his  death,  in  1843.  It  now  hangs  in 
the  National  Gallery  of  Scotland  at  Edinburgh. 
The  present  reproduction  shows  but  a  part  of 
the  picture,  the  figure  being  full  length.  It  has 
been  excellently  reproduced  in  etching  by  both 
Flameng  and  Waltner. 

In  1885,  a  most  comprehensive  exhibition  of 
Gainsborough's  works  was  made  at  the  Gros- 
venor  Gallery  in  London.  At  it  was  noted  the 
important  part  this  painter  had  played  in  per- 
petuating the  lineaments,  bearing,  graces,  and 
gownings  of  the  great  persons  of  the  latter  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

"  The  lips  that  laughed  an  age  agone, 
The  fops,  the  dukes,  the  beauties  all, 
Le  Brim  that  sang  and  Carr  that  shone." 


2O  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

There  was  seen  The  Hon.  Miss  Georgiana 
Spencer,  at  the  age  of  six,  and  again  a  later 
portrait  of  her  as  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  - 
she  of  the  then  irresistibly  seductive  manners,  — 
and  her  mother,  Countess  Spencer,  of  whom 
Walpole  wrote  as  being  one  of  the  beauties 
present  at  the  coronation  of  George  III.,  in 
1761.  There,  too,  was  Anne  Luttrell,  daughter 
of  Simon  Luttrell,  Baron  Irnham,  who  married, 
first,  Christopher  Horton,  and,  secondly,  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  brother  of  the  king.  Of 
her  Walpole  wrote  :  "  There  was  something  so 
bewitching  in  her  languishing  eyes,  which  she 
could  animate  to  enchantment  if  she  pleased, 
and  her  coquetry  was  so  active,  so  varied,  and 
yet  so  habitual  that  it  was  difficult  not  to  see 
through  it,  and  yet  as  difficult  to  resist  it."  And 
here  was  another  widow  who  captivated  royalty, 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Walter 
Smythe  of  Bambridge,  Hampshire,  and  married, 
first,  Edward  Weld,  secondly,  Thomas  Fitzher- 
bert of  Synnerton,  Staffordshire  (who  died  in 
1781),  and  was  said  to  have  been  married  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales  (George  IV.)  in  1785. 


THE    HONORABLE    MRS.    GRAHAM.  21 

And  there  also  was  a  more  notorious  beauty, 
Miss  Grace  Dalrymple,  afterwards  Mrs.  Elliott, — 
though  divorced  later,  and  becoming  the  mis- 
tress of  various  aristocrats,  notably  the  Duke 
of  Orleans. 

The  Duchess  of  Montagu,  granddaughter  of 
the  great  Duke  of  Maryborough  (one  of  the 
Churchills,  —  a  family  prolific  of  beauties),  was 
there  seen.  Several  pictures  of  the  painter's  wife 
(who  was  a  Miss  Margaret  Burr),  of  his  youngest 
daughter,  Mary,  afterwards  Mrs.  Fischer,  and 
one  of  his  friend,  Miss  Linley,  went  to  aug- 
ment this  superb  congregation  of  beauties  shown. 
Portraits  of  Garrick,  —  that  intensely  interest- 
ing Stratford  portrait,  —  Earl  Spencer,  Pitt,  Earl 
Stanhope,  Colonel  St.  Leger,  George  IV.,  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  George  III.,  Earl  Cathcart,  Can- 
ning, Dr.  Johnson,  Fox,  and  several  showings  of 
himself,  made  up  a  body  of  work  unsurpassed 
in  importance  by  that  of  the  president  of  the 
Academy  himself. 

Gainsborough  was  born  in  1727;  he  moved 
to  Bath,  in  its  most  brilliant  period,  in  1760. 
He  died  in  1788,  but  had  ceased  contributing 


22  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

to  the  Academy  four  years  before,  because  of  a 
disagreement  with  the  hanging  committee.  His 
portraits  of  ladies  were  always  picturesque  and 
individual,  each  differentiated  from  each  of  his 
own  works  as  well  as  from  that  of  other 
painters. 

This  portrait  of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Graham  is 
delicate  in  color,  —  yellowed  somewhat  by  its 
long  seclusion  from  the  light,  —  and  will  remain 
one  of  the  most  delightful  and  spirituel  creations 
of  the  old  English  school. 


IWIIGoNJI 

ROMNFY 


=^ 

AMILTQN 

WITH  ibe  name  of  Lady  Hamil- 
ton is  ever  associated  the  names  of 
England's  most  famous  sailor  and 
of  one  of  her  most  famous  painters. 
Hers  was  a  life  redolent  of  ill-repute. 
Though  her  beauty  was  great,  it 
\\  served  her  for  ill  purposes ;  but  she 
'**  came  by  her  lack  of  character  by 
heredity.  She  was  born  in  1761,  the 
daughter  of  a  female  servant  named  Harte, 
and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  was  put  to 
service  as  a  nurse  in  the  house  of  a  Mr. 
Thomas  of  Hawarden,  Flintshire.  She 
found  tending  children  a  tedious  task,  and  for- 
sook it.  At  sixteen,  she  went  to  London,  and 
became  a  lady's  maid  there.  Her  leisure  time 
was  spent  in  reading  novels  and  plays,  which 
inspired  a  love  for  the  drama.  She  early 


26  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

developed  a  rare  ability  for  pantomimic  repre- 
sentation ;  and  this  became  a  favorite  form  of 
entertainment  in  drawing-rooms  and  studios. 
Her  duties  as  a  domestic  agreed  not  with  the 
drama,  so  her  next  position  was  as  barmaid 
in  a  tavern  much  frequented  by  actors  and 
artists.  She  formed  the  acquaintance  of  a 
Welsh  youth,  on  whose  being  impressed  into  the 
navy,  she  went  to  the  captain  to  intercede  for 
him.  The  boy  was  liberated,  but  the  comely 
intercessor  was  impressed  into  the  service  of 
the  captain.  From  him  she  went  to  live  with 
a  man  of  wealth;  but  her  extravagance  and 
wilfulness  induced  him  to  forego  her  company. 
Then  followed  a  period  of  the  lowest  street 
degradation.  From  this  state  she  was  taken 
by  a  Dr.  Graham,  who  was  a  lecturer  upon 
health,  and  exhibited  the  finely-formed  Emma 
as  a  perfect  specimen  of  female  symmetry. 
She  became  the  topic  of  the  town.  Painters, 
sculptors,  and  others  came  to  admire  the  shapely 
limbs  shown  under  but  a  thin  veil  of  gauze. 
The  young  bloods  of  the  time  worshipped, — 
some  not  afar  off;  and  one  of  them,  Charles 


LADY    HAMILTON.  27 

Greville,  of  the  Warwick  family,  who  had  essayed 
to  educate  her  to  become  a  fit  companion  for 
his  elevated  existence,  maintained  her  for  about 
four  years.  It  is  recorded,  that  when  he  took  her 
to  Ranelagh's  the  sensation  was  greater  than 
had  ever  been  produced  by  any  other  beauty 
there.  Not  the  winsome  and  witty  Mrs.  Crewe, 
nor  her  friend  Mrs.  Bouverie  ;  not  that  first  flame 
of  the  amorous  Prince  of  Wales,  Mrs.  Robinson, 
nor  Anne  Luttrell,  also  beloved  of  royalty  ; 
not  the  Marchioness  of  Tavistock,  whose  loveli- 
ness has  been  preserved  to  us  by  Sir  Joshua,  nor 
the  delightful  Duchess  of  Buccleugh ;  not  Lady 
Cadogan,  and  not  even  the  dashing  Duchess  of 
Devonshire  herself,  —  caused  the  comment  and 
admiration  this  low-born  unprincipled  young 
woman  now  excited.  Mr.  Greville  would  have 
married  her  had  not  his  uncle,  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  interfered.  It  is  variously  stated 
that  Sir  William  agreed  to  pay  his  nephew's 
debts  if  he  would  yield  up  his  mistress;  and 
also  that,  in  endeavoring  to  free  the  young 
man,  the  old  gentleman  himself  fell  into  the 
snare  of  her  charms.  "  She  is  better  than  any- 


28  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

thing  in  Nature.  In  her  own  particular  way 
she  is  finer  than  anything  that  is  to  be  found 
in  Greek  art,"  exclaimed  this  savant  on  first  see- 
ing her.  She  was  a  most  enchanting  deceiver, 
and  a  finished  actress  in  the  parts  of  candor 
and  simplicity,  so  succeeded  in  marrying  Sir 
William,  in  1791.  He  was  over  sixty  years  of 
age,  a  man  of  much  classical  and  scientific 
erudition,  and  had  been  for  many  years  ambas- 
sador at  the  court  of  Naples,  to  which  place 
he  was  soon  accompanied  by  his  bride.  She 
became  a  favorite  with  the  queen,  and  a  frequent 
visitor  at  the  palace,  also  somewhat  of  a  social 
success  among  the  British  residents.  She  sang 
well,  and  made  a  specialty  of  showing  herself  in 
"  attitudes,"  or  what  we  term  now  "  living  pic- 
tures," for  the  delectation  of  her  guests.  "  You 
never  saw  anything  so  charming  as  Lady 
Hamilton's  attitudes,"  wrote  the  Countess  of 
Malmesbury  to  her  sister,  Lady  Elliot ;  "  the  most 
graceful  statues  or  pictures  do  not  give  you  an 
idea  of  them.  Her  dancing  the  Tarantella  is 
beautiful  to  a  degree."  It  was  here  began  that 
intimacy  with  Nelson  which  became  the  great 


LADY    HAMILTON.  29 

blot  on  his  fair  fame.  He  was  then  com- 
manding the  Agamemnon,  and  she  became  his 
constant  companion,  and  was  sometimes  useful 
to  him  as  a  political  agent.  After  the  victory 
of  Aboukir  Bay,  when  Naples  went  wild  in  its 
enthusiastic  reception  of  the  naval  hero,  Lady 
Hamilton  shared  the  honors  of  the  pageant. 
She  accompanied  him  in  a  tour  through  Ger- 
many ;  and  most  reprehensible  was  their  conduct, 
at  times,  in  defying  the  decencies  of  polite  life. 
After  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  Nelson,  accom- 
panied by  Sir  William  and  Lady  Hamilton, 
retired  to  his  seat  at  Merton,  in  Surrey,  and 
on  the  death  of  the  ambassador,  in  1803,  he 
vainly  endeavored  to  procure  an  allowance  from 
the  government  for  the  widow,  on  the  pretext 
of  the  services  she  had  rendered  the  fleet  in 
Sicily.  Failing  this,  he  himself  granted  her  an 
annuity  of  twelve  hundred  pounds.  We  all 
know  how  at  Trafalgar,  when  the  hero  was 
dying,  he  spoke  of  "dear  Lady  Hamilton,  his 
guardian  angel,"  and  left  to  her  all  his  belong- 
ings, and  recommended  her  to  the  grateful  care 
of  his  country.  Notwithstanding  this,  she  died 


30  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

almost  in  poverty,  in  1815.  In  1813  she  had 
been  imprisoned  for  debt,  and  when  out  on  bail 
she  fled  to  Calais,  and  there  the  career  was 
closed.  It  was  extraordinary  that  this  woman 
should  subjugate  and  hold  in  thrall  men  of 
great  force  of  character.  She  had  great  loveli- 
ness of  person ;  but  physical  beauty  alone  is 
ineffectual  to  charm  such  as  these.  Though 
not  regularly  educated,  she  acquired  much  gen- 
eral knowledge,  and  was  tactful  in  the  display 
and  use  of  it. 

It  was  during  the  period  of  her  posing  for 
Dr.  Graham,  that  Romney  became  enamoured 
of  her  beauty,  and  painted  for  us  more  than  a 
dozen  important  pictures  of  her.  Those  were 
the  days  when  ladies  of  rank  and  beauty  were 
deified ;  and,  following  this  fashion,  Romney 
rendered  "  Fair  Emma  "  in  many  guises.  Her 
ability  in  acting  made  her  a  most  useful  model. 
Her  features  had  much  mobility,  and  were  cap- 
able of  expressing,  with  facility,  all  gradations 
of  passion  and  niceties  of  feeling.  Emma  took 
pride  and  pleasure  in  serving  Romney.  He 
repeated  to  his  friend,  the  poet  Hayley,  her 


LADY    HAMILTON.  31 

request,  that  in  the  biography  of  the  painter, 
Hayley  would  have  much  to  say  of  her.  One 
of  his  earliest  classical  conceptions  painted  from 
her,  was  a  full  length  of  Circe  with  her  wand. 
Following  this  was  a  "  Sensibility,"  which  became 
the  property  of  Hayley.  Though  we  remember 
Romney  chiefly  in  connection  with  his  Lady 
Hamiltons,  yet  he  had  acquired  his  reputation 
and  much  fortune  ere  he  met  her.  The  great 
bulk  of  his  portrayals  of  the  nobility  preceded 
his  classical  subjects,  which  took  form  from  his 
superb  model.  She  was  Cassandra ;  she  was 
Iphigenia,  St.  Cascilia,  Bacchante,  Calope,  The 
Spinstress,  Joan  of  Arc,  The  Pythian  Princess 
Calypso,  and  Magdalene, —  the  two  latter  sub- 
jects painted  to  order  for  the  then  Prince  of 
Wales. 

Allan  Cunningham  has  this  to  say  in  his 
sketch  of  Romney's  life :  "  A  lady  in  the  char- 
acter of  a  saint.  This  sort  of  flattery,  once  so 
prevalent  with  painters,  is  now  nearly  worn  out: 
we  have  now  no  Lady  Betty's  enacting  the  part 
of  Diana;  no  Lady  Jane's  tripping  it  barefoot 
among  the  thorns  and  brambles  of  this  weary 


THERE  are  few  names  more  associated  with 
the  brilliant  days  of  Bath,  the  days  of  its  social 
and  artistic  prominence,  than  those  of  Thomas 
Linley,  the  composer,  and  of  his  daughter,  Eliza 
Anne,  known  abroad  as  "the  Fair  Maid  of  Bath." 
Linley  was  born  there,  in  1735;  and  after  his 
studies  in  music  on  the  Continent,  under  Para- 
dies,  he  returned  to  the  then  fashionable  city 
on  the  Avon.  He  conducted  oratorios  and 
concerts  there,  and  became  a  power  in  the 
community.  Delicacy,  tenderness,  simplicity, 
and  taste  were  the  characteristics  of  his  com- 
positions. It  was  said  of  him,  that  as  Garrick 
had  restored  Shakspeare,  so  Linley  has  restored 
the  sublime  music  of  Handel.  He  trained  his 
family  to  take  part  in  the  performances.  His 


38  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

son  Thomas,  born  in  1756,  developed  a  mar- 
vellous ability  in  music,  —  playing  the  violin 
with  great  brilliancy  and  expression.  He  was 
the  friend  of  Mozart,  and  took  at  times  his 
father's  place  as  conductor  of  the  oratorios. 
His  career  was  cut  short  by  drowning,  in 

1778. 

But  it  was  his  beautiful  daughter  Eliza,  born 
in  1754,  who  made  the  sensation  of  the  time, 
when  she  sang  with  her  sister,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Tickell.  "  A  nest  of  nightingales,"  the  family 
was  termed.  Walpole  writes,  in  1773:  "I  was 
not  at  the  ball  last  night  and  have  only  been 
to  the  opera,  where  I  was  infinitely  struck  with 
the  Carrara,  who  is  the  prettiest  creature  upon 
earth.  Mrs.  Hartley  I  own  to  still  find  hand- 
somer, and  Miss  Linley,  to  be  the  superlative 
degree.  The  king  admires  the  last,  and  ogles 
her  as  much  as  he  dares  to  do  in  so  holy  a 
place  as  an  oratorio,  and  at  so  devout  a  service 
as  '  Alexander's  Feast.' "  Musical  prominence 
and  personal  beauty  in  this  maid  of  but  twenty 
made  her  an  attractive  flower  in  bloom  to  others 
than  the  king.  The  wits  and  gallants  of  the 


MRS.    SHERIDAN.  39 

gay  city  sought  and  courted  her.  The  family 
of  Tom  Sheridan,  the  Irish  actor,  and  then  a 
teacher  of  elocution  in  Bath,  was  intimate  with 
the  Linley  family.  Richard,  who  was  born  in 
Dublin  in  1751,  his  elder  brother  Charles,  and 
Nathaniel  Halhed,  a  companion  and  literary 
partner  with  Richard,  all  admired  the  daughter 
Eliza.  Halhed  went  to  India,  —  afterwards 
becoming  a  judge  there,  —  and  Charles  Sheridan 
retired  from  the  race,  and  left  the  literary  youth 
to  win  as  pure  a  heart  as  ever  cheered  incipient 
genius  to  works  of  worth.  She  was  lauded  in 
verse  by  her  young  Irish  suitor,  and  championed 
in  deed.  He  asserts  his  constancy  in  a  poem, 
of  which  the  first  stanza  is  — 

"  Dry  that  tear,  my  gentlest  love ; 
Be  hushed  that  struggling  sigh ; 
Nor  seasons,  day,  nor  fate  shall  prove 
More  fixed,  more  true  than  I. 
Hushed  be  that  sigh,  be  dry  that  tear ; 
Cease  boding  doubt,  cease  anxious  fear ; 
Dry  be  that  tear." 

He  proves  his  devotion  by  his  action  when  ap- 
pealed to  by  his  divinity. 


4<D  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

A  certain  Captain  Matthews,  one  of  a  nu- 
merous breed  in  Bath  in  those  days,  —  that  is, 
a  fashionable  scoundrel  and  a  married  man, - 
made  himself  obnoxious  to  Miss  Linley  by  im- 
proper addresses.  He  annoyed  and  harassed 
her,  threatening  to  destroy  himself  unless  she 
gratified  him,  and  later  attempted  to  sully  her 
reputation  by  calumnies.  This  brought  about 
the  culmination  of  her  attachment  to  Sheridan. 
She  fled  her  father's  house  and  sought  the 
protection  of  her  lover.  Accompanied  by  a 
chaperon,  they  left  for  France.  After  some 
romantic  adventures,  they  were  married  in 
March,  1772,  at  a  little  village  near  Calais; 
but  it  was  a  wedding  without  the  wherewithal 
to  maintain  a  home,  so  the  bride  entered  a 
convent,  and,  later,  the  house  of  an  English 
physician,  until  literature  should  be  remunera- 
tive. The  eloping  lady's  father  sought  the 
runaways ;  and,  after  some  explanations,  they 
returned  with  him  to  England.  It  was  shortly 
after  this  that  Sheridan  fought  two  duels  with 
Matthews,  being  wounded  in  the  later  one  to 
such  an  extent  that  his  recovery  was  doubtful. 


MRS.    SHERIDAN.  41 

"  Sweet  Betsy "  claimed  the  right  of  a  wife  to 
tend  her  hurt  husband,  and  so  revealed  the 
fact  of  the  marriage  in  France.  The  old  actor 
rejected  his  impulsive  son,  but  Linley's  aversion 
to  the  union  of  his  daughter  being  at  last  set 
aside,  the  pair  were  re-married  in  England  in 
April,  1773. 

The  sweet  singer  had  been  admired  by  an- 
other, an  elderly  suitor  of  much  fortune,  whom 
her  father  had  approved,  but  to  whom  she  was 
averse.  This  gentleman  now  became  the  bene- 
factor of  the  pair.  He  settled  a  moiety  of  three 
thousand  pounds  on  the  bride.  Her  father  re- 
tained half  of  this  as  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  the  services  of  his  daughter.  On  the  balance, 
the  youthful  couple  lived.  Sheridan  had  entered 
himself  a  student  of  the  Middle  Temple  shortly 
before  his  marriage.  Though  their  income  was 
small,  he  would  not  allow  his  wife  to  accept 
several  proffered  professional  engagements ;  he 
did  not  wish  his  helpmeet  to  become  a  servant 
of  the  public.  This  action  incited  some  discus- 
sion, and  much  acrimonious  comment,  in  her 
family  and  among  their  friends.  Johnson  upheld 


42  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

his  course.  Sheridan,  in  this  instance,  under- 
stood himself  and  understood  the  times.  He 
knew  of  the  flippant  attitude  of  the  young  blades 
of  the  town  toward  all  public  performers ;  so  he 
sought  to  save  her,  who  was  so  sacred  to  him, 
from  such  insult,  insincere  adulation,  and  in- 
sinuation as  she  had  heretofore  suffered  from. 
They  retired  to  a  cottage  at  East  Burnham ; 
and  there  she,  who  had  received  the  plaudits  of 
the  public  as  a  vocalist,  won  as  noble  a  name 
in  the  character  of  the  ideal  wife,  one  in  whom 
were  united  all  the  attributes  of  loveliness,  — 
temper,  manners,  virtues,  and  surpassing  beauty. 
What  the  then  public  lost,  later  generations  have 
gained  in  the  picture  of  that  lovable  woman, 
making  a  golden  age  of  happiness  for  her 
greatly-gifted  husband  in  the  little  cottage  at 
East  Burnham. 

Fanny  Burney  records  her  pleasant  impres- 
sions of  the  bride, —  "I  was  absolutely  charmed 
at  the  sight  of  her.  I  think  her  quite  as  beau- 
tiful as  ever,  and  even  more  captivating ;  for 
she  has  now  a  look  of  ease  and  happiness  that 
animates  her  whole  face.  Miss  Linley  was  with 


MRS.    SHERIDAN.  43 

her ;  she  is  very  handsome,  but  nothing  near  her 
sister;  the  elegance  of  Mrs.  Sheridan's  beauty 
is  unequalled  by  any  I  ever  saw,  except  Mrs. 
Crewe.  I  was  pleased  with  her  in  all  respects. 
She  is  much  more  lively  and  agreeable  than  I 
had  any  idea  of  finding  her ;  she  was  very  gay, 
and  very  unaffected,  and  totally  free  from  airs  of 
any  kind." 

In  1775,  the  husband's  genius  was  acknowl- 
edged by  the  town;  for  in  January,  that  year, 
was  first  presented  "  The  Rivals."  In  that  play 
he  draws  from  the  material  displayed  by  the 
superficial,  flashing,  and  piquant  society  of  the 
day  at  Bath,  and  from  his  own  experience  the 
inimitable  duel  scene  therein. 

Much  success  followed  for  the  dramatist.  In 
the  following  year,  in  conjunction  with  his 
father-in-law,  he  purchased  from  Garrick  the 
Drury  Lane  Theatre.  They  brought  out  sev- 
eral operas  together;  Linley's  music  in  "The 
Duenna"  and  "The  Beggar's  Opera,"  being 
especially  fine.  Hazlitt  speaks  of  the  songs  in 
them  as  having  a  joyous  spirit  of  intoxication, 
and  strains  of  the  most  melting  tenderness. 


44  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

In  1777,  appeared  "The  School  for  Scandal," 
a  theme  also  suggested  by  scandal-mongering 
Bath.  His  fond  and  faithful  wife  lived  not  to 
see  the  dimming  of  the  genius  that  produced 
these  classics ;  she  died  of  a  decline,  at  Bristol, 
in  1792.  Her  daughter,  too,  died  within  the 
same  year.  Two  of  her  accomplished  descend- 
ants, through  her  son,  have  displayed  some  of 
her  romantic  taste  and  charm  of  manner  to  a 
generation  just  preceding  our  own, —  her  grand- 
daughters, Lady  Dufferin,  mother  of  the  English 
ambassador  to  France,  and  Hon.  Caroline  Norton, 
author  of  "  Love  not,  love  not,  ye  hapless  sons 
of  men." 

Though  she  whom  he  had  adored  was  but 
three  years  dead,  Sheridan  married,  in  1795, 
Esther  Jane  Ogle,  daughter  of  the  Dean  of 
Winchester.  With  her  he  obtained  some  money 
and  this,  added  to  his  own,  purchased  the  estate 
of  Polesdon,  in  Surrey.  His  wife  was,  at  that 
time,  spoken  of  as  young,  amiable,  and  devoted 
to  him.  She  died  at  about  the  same  time  as 
he,  in  1816. 

In   the  first  flush   of   those    romantic   wedded 


MRS.    SHERIDAN.  45 

days  of  their  youth  how  impressive  must  have 
been  the  appearance  of  that  markedly  clever 
young  man,  eager  in  the  fight  for  fame,  and 
of  his  beauteous  bride  from  Bath.  Reynolds 
painted,  in  1779,  the  standard  presentment  of 
Sheridan.  Walpole's  comment  on  it  was :  "  Praise 
cannot  overstate  the  merits  of  this  portrait.  It 
is  not  canvas  and  color,  it  is  animated  nature, — 
all  the  unaffected  manner  and  character  of  the 
great  original."  The  artist  said  that  among  all 
his  sitters  none  had  such  large  pupils  of  the 
eyes.  With  the  brilliance  of  that  mind  informing 
the  face,  his  features,  though  not  regular,  were 
handsome.  Of  all  the  portraits  of  Miss  Linley, 
perhaps  the  one  by  Gainsborough,  in  which  she 
is  portrayed  with  her  young  brother,  gives  the 
best  idea  of  the  special  character  of  her  type  of 
beauty.  Here  are  the  large  lustrous  eyes  and 
the  very  delicately  modelled,  sensitive,  refined 
features ;  here,  the  luxuriant  hair,  the  slender 
neck,  and  the  sloping  shoulders ;  and  here,  the 
superb  poise  of  head  and  of  mind.  There  is 
another  fine  picture  of  her  by  Gainsborough, 
for  this  painter  was  one  of  the  brilliant  men 


46  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

who  frequented  her  father's  house  at  Bath.     A 
musician  he  was,  too,  and  an  excellent  performer 
on  the  violin,  so  was  congenial  company  in  that 
musical  family.     He  admired  the  daughter,  and 
wrought   for   us    the    delightful    records    of    her 
beauty.      His   change    of    residence,  from    Bath 
to   London,  coincided    in  date  with    that  of   the 
Sheridans.     Opie,  too,  painted   her  portrait ;  not 
an   ideal   one,  but  good  in   respect  to  her  eyes. 
And   Romney  has  given  us  good  pictures  both 
of   her  and  Mrs.  Tickell.      Reynolds's  portrayal 
is  supreme  in  indicating  the  exaltation  of  spirit, 
by  the  poise  of  head  and   perfection  of  profile. 
This  picture  of  her  as  the  patron  saint  of  song 
was   exhibited   at   the    Academy,    in    1775,    just 
about  the  time  its  subject  had  abandoned  public 
singing.     It  has  been  most  beautifully  engraved 
by    Bartolozzi,    and    ranks    as    one    of   his    best 
plates.      When    the    days    of    sorrow    came    to 
Sheridan,  —  when    his    weaknesses   of   character 
brought    him    to   a    low   estate ;    when    poverty 
became  his  portion,  and   the  long  lost  days   of 
romantic    love    became    but    a   memory ;    when 
treasure    after  treasure,  manuscripts,  and   sump- 


MRS.    SHERIDAN. 


47 


tuous  books  were  disposed  of,  and  presentation 
pictures  were  pawned,  —  this  picture  of  St. 
Caecilia,  a  reminder  of  the  days  that  had 
vanished,  was  the  last  valued  possession  to  be 
parted  with. 


(PUMTC55  op 
EOINGI&H 


4 


THE  brilliant  Blessington, — bril- 
liant in  beauty  and  in  intellect ! 
Throughout  her  life  of  romance 
she  was  fortunate  in  her  literary 
friendships,  through  whom  a  knowledge 
of  her  abilities  has  grown  to  tradition,  but 
most  fortunate  in  the  portrayer  of  her 
beauty.  Lawrence  has  painted  a  picture 
which  it  is  a  perpetual  pleasure  to 
behold,  —  the  superb  arms  and  shoul- 
ders, the  serene,  steadfast  gaze  of  the 
eyes,  and  the  conscious,  yet  confi- 
dent, poise  of  the  head  forming  a  record  to  justify 
the  tradition  of  great  personal  beauty  and  alert- 
ness of  mind. 

Marguerite  Blessington's  youth  was  ill-regulated 
and  penurious.  She  was  born  in  1789,  the  sec- 
ond daughter  of  Edmund  Power,  of  Knockbrit, 


52  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

near  Clonmel,  in  the  county  of  Tipperary.  Her 
father  came  of  a  good  family,  as  did  also  her 
mother,  who  spoke  unduly  often  of  her  ancestors, 
the  Desmonds.  Marguerite  was  not  comely  in 
her  early  girlhood,  though  her  sister  Ellen  and 
her  brother  Robert  were  handsome  children. 
As  a  child,  she  was  sensitive  and  sentimental, 
and  her  delight  was  to  browse  in  a  library,  — 
and  it  was  this  taste  that  equipped  her  for  her 
later  friendships.  Her  power  of  imagination  was 
uncommonly  strong,  and  she  became  the  enter- 
tainer of  her  children-companions  with  stories  of 
her  own  imagining,  as  well  as  by  her  recitals 
of  legends  and  romance  learned  in  the  library. 
Her  father  removed  to  Clonmel,  and  became 
editor  of  a  paper  there.  He  was  not  prosperous, 
and  was  a  man  of  perverse  temper,  which  grew 
with  adversity.  Marguerite  and  her  sister  were 
fancied  by  some  wealthy  maiden-lady  relatives, 
and  were  taken  by  them  to  a  home  of  comfort. 
On  their  return  to  Clonmel, —  beautiful,  and  with 
the  distinction  of  knowledge  and  a  clever  use  of 
it,  —  they  were  a  contrast  to  the  ordinary  Irish 
country  girl,  whose  whole  equipment  of  dress  and 


LADY    BLESSINGTON.  53 

accomplishments  was  "  two  washing  gowns  and  a 
tune  on  the  piano."  The  girls  took  part  in  all 
the  gayeties  of  the  town,  and,  besides  the  charm 
of  their  conversation,  were  graceful  dancers ;  and 
though  Marguerite  was  less  beautiful,  she  was 
most  tasteful  in  dress,  and  this  became  always  a 
noted  characteristic  of  hers.  They  became  the 
attraction  of  an  English  regiment  recently  sta- 
tioned in  the  town,  and  Marguerite  was  soon 
married,  through  the  insistence  of  her  father,  to 
a  Captain  Farmer,  when  less  than  fifteen  years 
of  age.  This  was  the  great  misfortune  of  her 
life. 

Her  husband  was  subject  to  fits  of  insanity, 
and  her  whole  feeling  towards  him  was  that  of 
aversion.  Cruelty  and  caprice  were  the  chief 
components  of  his  character.  From  his  tyranny 
she  fled,  —  first  to  her  father's  house,  but  was  de- 
nied solace  there,  so  sought  it  elsewhere.  She 
led  a  somewhat  vagabond  existence  for  about 
nine  years,  living  first  with  one  friend,  then 
with  another;  thankful  for  any  home,  and  ac- 
commodating herself  to  any  companions.  Of 
this  period  of  her  life  not  much  is  recorded, 


54  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

save  her  beauty,  for  it  was  shortly  after  this  that 
her  peerless  portrait  was  painted,  ere  her  sorrow 
and  suffering  had  time  to  efface  the  vivacity  of 
youth,  but  only  to  give  depth  to  the  eyes  and 
interest  to  the  face.  She  lived  in  London  with 
her  brother  Robert  until  in  1817,  when  her  hus- 
band's death  occurred  by  his  falling  out  of  a 
window  when  in  a  state  of  drunken  frenzy. 
Four  months  after  this  she  became  the  second 
wife  of  an  Irish  nobleman  of  a  dashing  person 
and  little  brains,  Charles  John  Gardiner,  second 
Earl  of  Blessington,  when  she  was  twenty-eight 
and  he  was  thirty-five  years  of  age.  With  this 
marriage  came  a  reversal  of  her  misfortunes. 
Her  generosity,  sympathy,  and  good  heart  soon 
prompted  the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of 
her  own  family,  and  in  this  gave  emphatic  evi- 
dence of  that  devotedness  to  duty  and  friends 
which  became  her  strongest  trait.  Her  youngest 
sister,  Marianne,  was  adopted  and  educated  by 
her,  and  became  her  travelling  companion,  and 
long  afterwards  her  modest  biographer.  Her 
sister  Ellen  married  first,  Mr.  Home  Purves,  and 
afterwards,  Viscount  Canterbury,  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons. 


LADY    BLESSINGTON.  55 

Lord  Blessington's  income  was  great,  but  his 
tastes  were  extravagant  as  were  also  his  wife's, 
and  luxurious  was  their  home  in  St.  James's 
Square,  and  magnificent  the  manner  in  which 
they  entertained  the  brilliant  society  gathered 
there;  and  for  three  years  their  brilliant  com- 
panies of  beauty  and  intellect  outshone  the 
congregations  at  Holland  House.  In  1822, 
Count  D'Orsay,  a  polished  and  accomplished 
young  Frenchman,  visited  London,  and  was 
made  most  welcome  by  the  Blessingtons.  In 
August  of  that  year  they  started  for  a  leisurely 
tour  of  the  Continent.  The  Countess  kept  a 
diary  during  this  journeying,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1839,  under  the  title  of  "The  Idler 
in  Italy,"  revealing  a  keen  observation  and  a 
capacity  for  entertaining  comment. 

Her  ladyship  was  ever  ambitious  of  literary 
eminence.  Possessed  of  great  beauty,  and 
after  a  time  high  station  and  wealth,  she  yet 
yearned  for  the  recognition  by  great  writers  of 
her  position  as  one  of  them.  She  had  published, 
previous  to  her  continental  trip,  two  volumes, 
-  one  called  "  The  Magic  Lantern,"  the  other, 


56  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

"  Sketches  and  Fragments,"  both  being  accounts 
of  and  comments  upon  London  society ;  both 
were  unsuccessful.  Her  one  book  which  will 
remain  in  literature  was  consequent  upon  her 
meeting  with  Lord  Byron  in  Genoa,  in  1823, 
and  is  a  record  of  her  conversations  with  the 
poet.  She  who  aspired  to  make  her  mark  in 
literature  has  made  it,  but  as  the  chronicler  of 
the  sentiments,  vanities,  whims,  and  oddities  of 
another.  But  it  was  no  ordinary  ability  that 
was  competent  to  persuade  the  great  poet, 
usually  unapproachable,  to  avow,  in  picturesque 
language,  his  opinions  on  men,  women,  and 
manners,  —  to  provide  for  later  times  the  data 
from  which  to  gauge  his  strange  personality. 

She  has  written  much  of  herself  into  her 
records;  and  calumny  urged,  at  the  time  of 
publication,  that  she  insinuated  in  her  writings 
a  far  greater  degree  of  friendship  on  the  poet's 
part  than  really  existed.  Yet,  in  refutation  of 
this  is  Byron's  letter  to  Moore :  — 

"  I  have  just  seen  some  friends  of  yours,  who 
paid  me  a  visit  yesterday,  which,  in  honor  of 
them  and  of  yours,  I  returned  to-day,  as  I  reserve 


LADY    BLESSINGTON.  57 

my  bear-skin  and  teeth  and  paws  and  claws  for 
our  enemies. 

"  Your  allies,  whom  I  found  very  agreeable 
personages,  are  Milor  Blessington  and  epouse, 
travelling  with  a  very  handsome  companion,  in 
the  shape  of  a  '  French  count '  (to  use  Farquhar's 
phrase  in  the  '  Beau's  Stratagem '),  who  has  all 
the  air  of  a  cupidor  dechalne.  Milady  seems 
highly  literary  ;  to  which,  and  your  honor's 
acquaintance  with  the  family,  I  attribute  the 
pleasure  of  having  seen  them.  She  is  also  very 
pretty,  even  in  a  morning ;  a  species  of  beauty 
on  which  the  sun  of  Italy  does  not  shine  so  fre- 
quently as  the  chandelier." 

The  Countess  Guiccioli  was  among  those  who 
depreciated  the  Blessingtons'  accounts  of  the 
conversations;  but  then,  perchance,  there  may 
have  been  some  jealousy  of  the  attractive  Eng- 
lish woman's  influence  over  the  poet.  The 
Blessingtons  left  Genoa  in  June  of  1823,  and 
continued  their  journeyings  throughout  Italy 
until  1828.  In  the  preceding  year,  Count 
D'Orsay  had  become  the  husband  of  the  Earl 
of  Blessington's  daughter,  Lady  Harriet  Frances 


58  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Gardiner,  when  she  was  but  little  over  fifteen 
years  of  age ;  but  they  lived  together  but  three 
years.  In  1829,  the  Earl  died  in  Paris;  and  the 
Countess  continued  there  until  after  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1830,  when  she  returned  to  England. 
Her  journal  of  the  trip  from  Naples  to  Paris, 
and  her  stay  in  that  city,  was  published  in  1841, 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Idler  in  France."  In 
England  she  took  a  house  in  Seamore  Place, 
Mayfair,  and  later  removed  to  Gore  House, 
Kensington,  with  which  place  is  associated  the 
traditions  of  her  elegant  entertainings  and  her 
intercourse  with  many  men  of  eminence,  but 
also  with  a  course  of  living  which  compromised 
her  reputation  in  society.  Her  son-in-law,  the 
Count,  continued  to  form  one  of  her  household, 
though  separated  from  his  wife,  the  Lady  Harriet. 
Though  not  received  in  general  society,  the 
Countess  surrounded  herself  with  celebrities  of 
all  nations ;  and  it  was  at  her  house  that  Louis 
Napoleon  was  a  cherished  guest  in  his  years  of 
exile,  and  from  whence  he  proceeded  to  head  the 
government  of  France.  Here  Bulwer  came  as 
perhaps  her  most  intimate  friend ;  here  Thack- 


LADY    BLESSINGTON.  59 

eray  was  made  most  welcome,  and  Lord  John 
Russell  and  Lord  Palmerston,  Canning  and 
Castlereagh  were  frequent  guests.  Dickens, — 
then  a  dandy  like  unto  D'Orsay,  who  seemed 
to  be  his  model, — "Rejected  Addresses"  Smith, 
the  banker-poet  Rogers,  Kemble,  Wilkie,  and  Dr. 
Parr  engaged  in  sparkling  converse  with  their 
hostess,  who  sat  in  a  deep  arm-chair  while  Tom 
Moore  was  privileged  to  perch  himself  on  a  foot- 
stool at  her  feet ;  and  by  all  these  meri  she  was 
held  in  unqualified  respect.  Her  income  be- 
came impaired  and  unequal  to  the  expense  of 
entertaining.  She  resorted  to  literature  to  add 
to  her  resources.  She  was  engaged  by  Heath, 
the  engraver,  to  edit  a  certain  class  of  annuals 
popular  in  those  days.  For  some  years  her 
income  from  "  The  Keepsake  "  and  "  The  Book 
of  Beauty "  exceeded  one  thousand  pounds  a 
year.  Her  novels,  too,  were  a  source  of  some 
profit.  For  "Strathern"  she  received  about  three 
thousand  dollars.  These  romances  were  weak 
in  character  and  plot,  but  were  fair  pictures 
of  society  portrayed  with  much  piquancy.  In 


6O  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

one, "  Grace  Cassidy,"  she  describes  interestingly 
scenes  of  her  youth  in  Ireland.  But  interest  in 
her  work  waned,  and  as  she  seems  not  to  have 
thought  of  retrenchment  of  her  expenditure, 
disaster  rapidly  descended.  In  1849,  she  had 
perforce  to  sell  out,  and  then  moved  to  Paris, 
where  she  died  in  the  same  year.  She  was 
buried  at  Chambourcy,  near  St.  Germain-en- 
Laye,  the  residence  of  the  Due  and  Duchesse 
de  Grammont,  the  sister  and  brother-in-law  of 
Count  D'Orsay. 

She  was  a  woman  of  great  tact,  of  a  sweet 
delicacy  of  manner,  and  of  a  chivalrous  devoted- 
ness  to  friendship.  Her  friends  were  carefully 
chosen,  and  never  deserted.  Perhaps  no  woman 
of  the  century  has  had  so  many  men  of  mark 
as  her  friends  and  admirers.  She  had  charity 
towards  others'  failings.  She  gave  pleasure 
where  she  could.  She  was  elegant  and  digni- 
fied in  her  bearing,  though  possessed  of  Irish 
wit  withal.  She  was  very  beautiful. 

Lord  Byron  was  induced  to  sing  the  praise 
of  her  picture  here  given  :  — 


LADY    BLESSINGTON.  6l 

"Were  I  now  as  I  was,  I  had  sung 
What  Lawrence  has  painted  so  well ; 
But  the  strain  would  expire  on  my  tongue, 
And  the  theme  is  too  soft  for  my  shell. 

"I  am  ashes  where  once  I  was  fire, 
And  the  bard  in  my  bosom  is  dead : 
What  I  loved  I  now  merely  admire, 
And  my  heart  is  as  gray  as  my  head. 

"  Let  the  young  and  the  brilliant  aspire 
To  sing  what  I  gaze  on  in  vain, 
For  sorrow  has  torn  from  my  lyre 
The  string  which  was  worthy  the  strain." 


MAPY 

I5ADLLLA 

DUCME53 
r  RUTUXND 

BLY/SOLD-5., 


V 


ROWLANDSON,  the  caricaturist, 
once  published  a  cartoon  entitled 
"Juno  Devon,  All  Sublime."  The 
rival  goddesses  in  competition  with 
her  before  that  modern  Paris,  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  being  their  Graces 
of  Gordon  and  Rutland.  Beyond 
the  various  written  records  of  the 
opposing  beauty  of  those  aristo- 
cratic dames  who  dominated  society 
in  their  day,  we  have  ample  painted 
evidence  of  their  loveliness.  Of 
her  Grace  of  Devonshire,  we  have, 
first,  the  engraved  renderings  of 
|  "  the  lost  Gainsborough."  There 
are  other  Gainsboroughs,  too,  —  Georgi- 
4  ana  as  a  child,  and  a  full-length  of  her 

O 

standing  at  the  edge  of  a  lawn,  her 
face  looking  down,  wearing  a  white  dress,  her 
right  elbow  on  the  base  of  a  column,  a  scarf 

5 


66  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

in  both  hands,  her  hair  piled  high,  but  without 
the  hat,  as  in  the  more  famous  picture.  There 
are  then  several  by  Sir  Joshua.  The  first,  where 
she  stands  as  a  child  beside  her  mother;  then, 
she  as  a  mother  with  her  own  child,  —  a  very 
charming  profile,  and  a  picture  that  insinuates 
the  vivacity  of  demeanor  and  the  abandon  so 
characteristic  of  her. 

Walpole  wrote  of  this  as  "  Little  like  and  not 
good."  Yet,  as  to  goodness,  a  modern  authority 
has  said :  "  It  is  a  superb  work ;  and,  in  motive, 
color,  and  composition,  it  ranks  as  a  triumph 
alike  of  nature  and  art."  Again,  there  is  a 
whole-length  showing  her  about  to  descend  some 
steps  to  a  lawn,  her  superb  shoulders  and  neck 
bare,  and  her  hair  highly  bedecked  with  feathers. 
Walpole  writes  of  another  portrait,  drawn  by 
Lady  Di  Beauclerck,  and  engraved  by  Bartolozzi : 
"  A  Castilian  nymph  conceived  by  Sappho  and 
executed  by  Myron,  would  not  have  had  more 
grace  and  simplicity.  The  likeness  is  perfectly 
preserved,  except  that  the  paintress  has  lent  her 
own  expression  to  the  Duchess,  which  you  will 
allow  is  very  agreeable  flattering."  In  the  Royal 


DUCHESS    OF    RUTLAND.  67 

collection  of  miniatures  at  Windsor,  are  three 
charmingly  executed  ivories  of  her  by  Cosway. 
Lawrence,  too,  made  a  chalk  drawing  of  her, 
which  now  hangs  at  Chiswick  House,  in  the 
room  in  which  Charles  Fox  died.  This  is  an 
interesting  work  from  being  a  very  early  effort 
of  the  after-time  President  of  the  Academy,  and 
showing  that  then  he  had  not  attained  the  trick 
of  flattering  his  sitters,  even  when  they  were 
noted  beauties.  Angelica  Kauffman  painted 
her,  and  John  Downman  also  made  a  portrait 
replete  with  elegance  and  picturesqueness.  In 
fact,  the  comely  Duchess  pervaded  the  art  of 
the  period.  Of  her  Grace  of  Gordon,  we  have, 
as  our  ideal  presentment  of  her,  the  portrait  by 
Sir  Joshua.  In  it  her  hair  is  done  up  high,  and 
two  rows  of  pearls  are  intertwined  therein.  The 
dress  is  of  the  Charles  the  First  period,  and 
shows  the  sweetly  modulated  shoulders  leading 
up  to  — 

"The  pillared  throat,  clear  chiselled  cheek, 
High  arching  brows,  nose  purely  Greek, 
Set  lips,  —  too  firm  for  a  coquette." 

We  have  also  an  interesting  portrait  of  her  by 
Romney. 


68  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Of  her  Grace  of  Rutland,  we  have  also  several 
pictures  by  Sir  Joshua.  There  is  a  whole-length 
with  a  decorative  head-dress,  and  a  landscape 
background.  The  original  of  this  was  destroyed 
by  fire  at  Belvoir  Castle.  Another,  a  half-length, 
in  the  same  costume,  and  a  three-quarter  face,  is 
mostly  pervaded  by  a  serene  sense  of  pride. 
There  is  a  drawing  of  her  done  by  the  Hon. 
Mrs.  O'Neil,  which  is  interesting  from  the  pic- 
turesque head-dress  shown.  Her  Grace  of  Gor- 
don was  as  great  a  power  in  the  political  world  as 
she  of  Devonshire, —  probably  greater,  for  her  alli- 
ance and  principles  were  with  the  ruling  power. 
This  lady  was  to  Pitt's  party  what  Fair  Devon 
was  to  Fox's.  In  fact,  it  was  asserted  she 
endeavored  to  marry  her  daughter,  Lady  Char- 
lotte, afterwards  Duchess  of  Richmond,  to  the 
premier.  When  Georgiana  made  her  famous 
canvass  in  favor  of  Fox,  the  Tories  opposed  to 
her  the  Scotch  Duchess. 

She  lived  and  entertained  then  in  a  splendid 
mansion  in  Pall  Mall ;  and  there  assembled  the 
adherents  of  the  Administration. 

Jane  was  the  daughter  of  Sir  William  Maxwell, 


DUCHESS    OF    RUTLAND.  69 

of  Monreith,  and  in  her  youth,  even,  was  noted 
for  beauty.  A  ballad,  "  Jenny  of  Monreith," 
written  in  her  honor,  was  often  chivalrously  sung 
by  her  son  George,  the  last  Duke  of  Gordon. 
"  Jenny "  married  the  fourth  Duke,  Alexander, 
in  1767.  The  career  of  the  Duke's  youngest 
brother  George,  identified  with  the  "  Gordon 
Riot,"  caused  the  family  much  embarrassment, 
and  even  threatened  to  derogate  from  the 
Duchess's  dominance  with  the  ruling  party. 

Her  Grace  was  of  somewhat  stronger  fibre 
than  she  of  Devon ;  more  masculinity,  ay,  even 
more  principle,  characterized  her.  Thrift  was  a 
visible  virtue,  in  contrast  to  Georgiana's  improvi- 
dence. Command,  rather  than  cajolery,  was  her 
political  method.  Her  later  life  was  devoted  to 
securing  sons-in-law ;  three  dukes,  a  marquis,  and 
a  knight  were  of  her  garnering.  She  was  on 
good  terms  with  the  Regent,  and  endeavored 
to  aid  him  in  his  differences  with  his  Princess 
Caroline.  She  is  remembered,  too,  as  a  patron 
and  friend  of  Dr.  Beattie,  the  poet,  who  has 
eulogized  her  in  these  lines  "To  a  Pen":  — 


7<D  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

"Go,  and  be  guided  by  the  brightest  eyes, 
And  to  the  softest  hand  thine  aid  impart ; 
To  trace  the  fair  ideas  as  they  arise, 
Warm  from  the  purest,  gentlest,  noblest  heart." 

The  third  in  that  group  of  goddesses  was 
surely  the  fairest  of  them  all,  of  more  perfect 
form,  more  noble  bearing,  having  that  ultimate 
element  of  the  greatest  beauty,  —  distinction. 
She  came  of  a  longer  lineage,  and  was  the  con- 
summate flower  of  beauty  wrought  by  the  sun 
and  summers  through  many  generations  of  patri- 
cian life, — life  amid  the  palatial  parks,  the  superb 
scenery,  and  majestic  castles  of  England.  Such 
living  weaves  its  sweetest  elements  into  the  tis- 
sues of  the  being  and  works  a  spell  of  loveliness 
such  as  Lady  Mary  Somerset.  She  was  the 
youngest  daughter  of  Charles,  fourth  Duke  of 
Beaufort,  a  descendant  of  the  Plantagenets.  In 
1775,  she  was  married  to  Lord  Charles  Manners, 
eldest  son  (born  in  1754)  of  John,  —  that  Marquis 
of  Granby  whom  Junius  attacked,  —  who  was 
associated  in  the  government,  in  George  the 
Second's  time,  with  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  The 
Marquis  was  a  man  of  much  force,  and  a  most 


DUCHESS    OF    RUTLAND.  71 

hospitable  entertainer.  He  died  before  his 
father,  the  third  Duke  of  Rutland. 

Lord  Charles  succeeded  to  the  dukedom  in 
1779.  He  had  formed  a  friendship  at  Cambridge 
with  Pitt,  the  son  of  his  father's  colleague,  and 
through  his  influence  Pitt  entered  Parliament. 
In  1784,  he  was  induced  by  the  young  premier 
to  accept  the  Lord-Lieutenancy  of  Ireland,  and 
it  is  with  the  lavish  entertainment  and  high 
revelries  at  Dublin  Castle  that  his  name  and 
that  of  his  beautiful  Duchess  is  connected. 

High  living  soon  told  its  tale,  for  the  Duke 
died  in  1787,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-three. 
Though  having  the  most  beautiful  wife  in  Eng- 
land, his  affections  wandered,  and  tales  are  told 
of  his  attachment  to  that  siren  singer,  Mrs. 
Billington.  The  Duchess's  manner  had  some- 
what of  levity  and  much  coquetry  in  it,  though 
she  could  not  be  classed  with  that  company  who 
have  not  time  to  be  virtuous.  At  the  time  of 
her  lord's  death,  she  was  living  with  her  mother, 
the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Beaufort,  in  Berkeley 
Square,  London,  having  been  partially  estranged 
from  her  husband.  On  hearing  of  his  illness,  she 


72  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

started  to  set  out  for  Dublin ;  but  a  message  of 
his  death  came  fast  upon  the  trail  of  the  first 
news.  Perchance  it  was  this  estrangement  at 
death,  this  having  parted  in  anger  without  the 
chance  of  reconciliation  in  life,  that  affected  her 
so  deeply  that,  though  sought  by  many  suitors, 
the  widow  was  true  to  the  memory  of  her  late 
lord.  Her  son,  John  Henry,  succeeded  to  the 
title ;  and  his  bride,  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of 
Carlisle,  was  also  known  as  a  beauty,  and  her 
portrait  was  painted  by  Hoppner,  in  1798.  It 
was  she  of  whom  Greville  wrote  in  his  Memoirs, 
and  commented  on  her  lack  of  taste  in  spoiling 
the  magnificent  Castle  of  Belvoir,  the  pride  and 
glory  of  the  Eastern  Midlands. 

The  beauty  of  the  Duchess  Mary  Isabella  was 
statuesque,  classical ;  her  features  were  noble. 
She  received  admiration  as  her  right,  but  gave 
not  largesse  of  smiles  and  wit  in  return.  She 
was  not  as  the  Devonian  divinity,  "  The  woman 
in  whose  golden  smile  all  life  seems  enchanted." 

Wraxall  writes  of  a  lady  telling  of  witnessing 
a  prenuptial  display  of  her  person,  and  being 
entranced  by  lithe  limb,  by  the  fine  and  faultless 


DUCHESS    OF    RUTLAND.  73 

form.  Reynolds  has  hinted  at  the  beauteous 
body,  and  the  hint  ensnares  us.  Verily,  "the 
visible  fair  form  of  a  woman  is  hereditary  queen  of 
us."  Wraxall  also  likens  the  Duchess  to  an  older- 
time  beauty,  Diane  de  Poitiers,  —  that  famous 
lady  of  France,  the  favorite  of  Fra^ois  I.  and 
Henri  II.  Of  that  lady's  beauty,  it  was  written, 
that  it  was  of  the  form  and  feature  rather  than 
the  radiance  of  the  mind  and  manner  trans- 
forming them ;  and  like  her,  too,  our  Duchess 
retained  her  beauty  to  an  advanced  age.  She 
died  in  1821.  To  the  last,  she  impressed  one 
with  her  dignity,  her  nobility,  her  loveliness. 

"  And  they  who  saw  her  snow-white  hair, 
And  dark,  sad  eyes,  so  deep  with  feeling. 
Breathed  all  at  once  the  chancel  air, 
And  seemed  to  hear  the  organ  pealing." 


1  LAVIMIA 
OPUNTE55 


\      -*""'< 

V.  '-•• 


_AVINIA 


IN  March,  1781,  Walpole  writes  to  a  friend: 
"  As  your  lordship  has  honored  all  the  produc- 
tions of  my  press  with  your  acceptance,  I  venture 
to  inclose  the  last,  which  I  printed  to  oblige  the 
Lucans.  There  are  many  beautiful  and  poetic 
expressions  in  it.  A  wedding,  to  be  sure,  is 
neither  a  new  nor  a  promising  subject,  nor  -will 
outlast  the  favors ;  still,  I  think  Mr.  Jones's  ode 
is  uncommonly  good  for  the  occasion."  The 
ode  was  "  The  Muse  Recalled,"  and  the  occa- 
sion the  nuptials  of  Lord  Viscount  Althorp 
and  Miss  Lavinia  Bingham,  eldest  daughter  of 
Sir  Charles  Bingham,  created,  in  1776,  Baron 
Lucan  of  Castlebar.  Sir  Charles  was  a  man  of 
culture,  who  was  intimate  with  Johnson,  Gold- 
smith, Gibbon,  Reynolds,  and  Burke.  He  is 
frequently  pleasantly  mentioned  by  Boswell.  He 


78  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

had  married,  in  1760,  Margaret,  daughter  of 
James  Smith,  M.P.,  a  lady  of  great  good  sense 
and  rare  accomplishments,  and  three  lovely 
daughters  were  the  issue  from  this  union.  Rey- 
nolds found  in  them  most  pleasing  subjects  for 
his  pencil.  Their  pictures  appeared  at  the 
Academy,  in  1786.  Lavinia  was  portrayed  as 
shown  in  the  picture  here  given,  and  again  in 
quite  as  lovely  a  fashion,  —  standing  out  doors 
and  wearing  a  wide-brimmed  hat  which  casts  a 
broad  shade  across  the  face;  the  wavy  curls  of 
hair  fall  upon  the  shoulder;  in  the  background 
is  a  landscape.  The  naivete  of  the  face  is 
exquisitely  delightful.  The  old-time  flavor  of 
the  whole  causes  one  to  recall  Locker's  lines 
on  the  picture  of  his  grandmother:  — 

"  Beneath  a  summer  tree, 
Her  maiden  reverie 

Has  a  charm ; 
Her  ringlets  are  in  taste  ; 
What  an  arm  !  .  .  .  what  a  waist 

For  an  arm  !  " 

In  the  picture  of  her  youngest  sister,  Anne, 
is  a  broad  hat,  too ;  she  sits  full-face,  but  in  her 


COUNTESS    SPENCER.  79 

features  there  is  lacking  just  a  little  of  the  quiet 
dignity  of  the  eldest.  All  of  these  portraits  have 
been  made  familiar  to  us  by  the  most  merito- 
rious mezzotints  of  them  by  Cousins.  In 
Lavinia's  face  there  lingers  all  the  enchanting 
grace  of  girlhood, —  a  face  yet  full  of  that  early 
beauty  — 

"Which,  like  the  morning's  glow 
Hints  a  full  day  below." 

A  later  president  of  the  Academy,  Sir  Martin 
Shee,  has  shown  us  that  face  in  the  noonday  of 
its  matronly  beauty,  and  the  gentle  character  and 
sweet  sensibility  yet  outshine  through  the  mask 
of  the  flesh  as  in  the  earlier  pictures. 

Lady  Bingham  was  careful  of  the  education 
and  company  of  her  daughters.  The  girls  were 
musical,  and  Lavinia  excelled  in  painting  as  well. 
Walpole  writes  of  her  being  in  Italy,  in  1785, 
with  Mrs.  Damer,  his  sculptor  friend,  and  of  her 
drawing  with  very  great  expression.  He  was 
not  so  complimentary  of  her  music  some  years 
before,  when  he  tells  of  being  invited  to  Lady 
Lucan's  to  hear  her  daughters  sing  Jomelli's 


8o  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

"  Miserere,"  set  for  two  voices :  "  It  lasted  for 
two  hours,  and  instead  of  being  pathetic  was 
eminently  dull,  until  at  last  I  rejoiced  when  '  the 
two  women  had  left  tke  sepulchre'.  " 

Shortly  after  this  he  tells  of  rumors  of 
the  attachment  of  George  John,  Lord  Althorp, 
brother  of  Georgiana  of  Devonshire,  to  "  that 
sweet  creature "  Lavinia.  At  dinner  at  Lord 
Lucan's,  Lord  Althorp  sat  at  a  side  table  with 
the  girls  and  a  Miss  Shipley.  "  Pray,  Lady 
Spencer,"  said  Walpole,  "  is  it  owned  that  Lord 
Althorp  is  to  marry  —  Miss  Shipley?  "  His  next 
reference  to  the  Lucans  is  in  regard  to  the 
wedding  ode  printed  on  the  Strawberry  Hill 
press.  The  poet  therein  invokes  blessings  in 
this  wise  :  — 

"Shine  forth,  ye  silver  eyes  of  night, 
And  gaze  on  virtues  crowned  with  treasures  of  delight. 

Flow  smoothly,  circling  hours,  — 

And  o'er  their  heads  unblended  pleasure  pour ; 

Nor  let  your  fleeting  round 

Their  mortal  transports  bound, 

But  fill  their  cup  of  bliss,  eternal  powers, 

Till  time  himself  shall  cease,  and  suns  shall  blaze  no  more." 


COUNTESS    SPENCER.  8 1 

He  essays  to  eulogize  the  bride :  — 

"  Each  morn  reclined  on  many  a  rose, 
Lavinia's  pencil  shall  disclose 
New  forms  of  dignity  and  grace, 
The  expressive  air,  the  impassioned  face, 
The  curled  smile,  the  bubbling  tear, 
The  bloom  of  hope,  the  snow  of  fear, 
To  some  poetic  tale  fresh  beauty  give, 
And  bid  the  starting  tablet  rise  and  live ; 
Or  with  swift  fingers  shall  she  touch  the  strings, 
Notes  of  such  wondrous  texture  weave 
As  lifts  the  soul  on   seraph  wings." 

He  then  proceeds  to  encourage  Althorp  to 
lead  a  strong,  noble  life,  devoting  his  great  abili- 
ties to  the  state,  though  he  laments  the  small 
chances  for  genuine  sterling  worth  to  achieve 
eminence 

"  In  this  voluptuous,  this  abandoned  age," 

when  the  leaders  of  the  country  are 
"  Slaves  of  vice  and  slaves  of  gold." 

There  was  much  fitness  in  this  poet  essaying 
a  homily  for  the  groom's  benefit,  for  he  had 
been  the  young  man's  tutor  some  years  before. 
When  the  first  Earl  —  a  man  of  most  fascinating 


82  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

manners  —  placed  his  son  in  the  tutor's  charge, 
he  said,  "  Make  him,  if  you  can,  like  yourself 
and  I  shall  be  satisfied."  Johnson  said  of  Sir 
William  Jones,  "  The  most  enlightened  of  the 
sons  of  men."  He  became  a  great  Indian  and 
Persian  scholar,  and  was  ever  an  honored  friend 
of  his  former  pupil. 

Previous  to  his  marriage,  Lord  Althorp  had 
entered  Parliament,  and,  as  a  Whig,  was  oppos- 
ing Lord  North.  When  the  Marquess  of  Rock- 
ingham  came  to  power,  he  was  made  a  Lord 
Commissioner  of  the  Treasury.  In  1783,  he 
succeeded  to  his  father's  earldom.  The  Dowager 
Countess  lived  on  until  1814.  Her  character 
has  been  variously  described.  Mrs.  Delany  calls 
her  "an  agreeable  person,  with  a  sensible,  gen- 
erous, and  delicate  mind."  She  was  termed 
vain.  What  woman  would  not  be  who  was 
mother  to  such  beauties  as  Devonshire,  Dun- 
cannon,  and  Lavinia.  In  an  autobiography  by 
the  third  Earl,  he  naively  remarks  that  his 
mother  never  liked  his  grandmother.  The 
pleasing  picture  of  "  Ruth  and  Naomi "  is  the 
exception  in  families. 


COUNTESS-  SPENCER.  83 

On  the  breaking  out  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, Earl  Spencer  gave  his  support  to  Pitt,  by 
whom  he  was  appointed  first  lord  of  the  admir- 
alty, in  1794.  It  was  during  the  period  of  her 
husband's  brilliant  career  in  this  office  that  the 
Countess  made  her  greatest  success  as  a  hostess 
in  ministerial  society.  She  was  a  good  conver- 
sationalist, and  especially  attractive  to  men  of 
individuality  who  admired  her  sagacious,  pictur- 
esque pungency  of  expression.  The  great  naval 
commanders,  who  frequented  the  admiralty,  were 
impressed  with  the  frankness  and  force  of  her 
superior  mind,  Nelson  and  Collingwood  partic- 
ularly. She  is  frequently  mentioned  in  their 
letters  as  being  sure  to  have  much  sympathy  in 
their  work.  A  late  biographer  of  the  Earl  wrote : 
"  She  had  the  penetration  to  appreciate  Nelson 
through  the  cloud  of  personal  vanity  and  silly 
conceit  which  caused  him  to  be  lightly  esteemed 
in  London  society."  Her  "  bull-dog "  she  used 
playfully  to  call  him.  She  visited  Gibbon  at 
Lausanne,  in  1795,  and  he  writes:  "She  is  a 
charming  woman  who,  with  sense  and  spirit,  has 
the  playfulness  and  simplicity  of  a  child.""  By 


84  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

some  she  was  accounted  haughty  and  exclusive. 
Perchance  she  was  to  those  who  were  without 
the  breeding  or  the  brains  to  commend  them  to 
her.  Dignified  she  certainly  was,  and  her  influ- 
ence was  wholly  for  good  in  the  uplifting  of 
politics  and  the  purifying  of  society.  "  I  would 
not  advise  any  one  to  utter  a  word  against  any 
one  she  was  attached  to,"  once  said  her  father. 
She  became  the  wise  coadjutor  of  her  husband 
in  forming  the  magnificent  Althorp  Library. 

When  the  earl  retired  from  the  admiralty,  in 
1800,  his  entertaining  became  less  general.  His 
hospitalities  at  Spencer  House  were  restricted  to 
his  more  intimate  friends.  Here  came  Lord  Gren- 
ville,  Earl  Grey,  chief  of  the  Whigs,  Brougham, 
Horner,  and  Lord  John  Russell ;  the  younger 
men  to  hold  converse  with  her  who  had  known 
Burke,  Pitt,  Fox,  and  all  the  older  time  orators 
and  statesmen. 

In  a  series  of  boyish  letters  sent  by  the  heir 
to  the  earldom  to  his  father  the  ending  of  all  is  in 
this  quaint  phrase :  "  My  duty  to  Mama."  The 
youth  did  his  duty  by  his  mother.  She  directed 
his  tastes  and  studies,  and  when  he  was  at  col- 


COUNTESS    SPENCER.  85 

lege  incited  him  to  try  for  high  honors,  and 
urged,  again  and  yet  again,  application  to  study ; 
and  through  her  persuasion  he  became  a  reading 
man.  He  entered  Parliament  when  of  age,  in 
1803.  During  the  Fox  and  Grenville  adminis- 
tration he  held  office  as  a  lord  of  the  treasury. 
When  his  mother  was  congratulated  on  his 
appointment,  she  said :  "  Jack  was  always  skilful 
in  figures,  and  his  work  is  so  much  to  his  taste 
that  I  am  sure  he  will  do  himself  credit."  He 
did  himself  great  credit.  His  career  was  con- 
sistently courageous,  honorable,  and  beneficent. 
He  had  character!  This  is  his  mother's  best 
eulogy.  She  died  in  1831,  shortly  after  her  son 
had  become  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  in 
which  office  he  earned  his  greatest  repute  as  a 
statesman. 


ELIZABETH: 

DUCHE55 

°F 

* 

READ 


JZADrm  GUNNING 


THE  story  of  the  Gunnings  is  as  romantic  as 
any  ever  wrought  into  imaginative  narrative  or 
incorporated  in  epic  poem.  The  notorious  dam- 
sels were  daughters  of  John  Gunning  of  Castle 
Coote,  County  Roscommon,  Ireland,  by  the  Hon. 
Bridget  Bourke,  daughter  of  Theobald,  sixth 
Viscount  Bourke  of  Mayo,  whom  he  married 
in  1731.  The  family  was  wofully  impecunious; 
so  when  the  daughters,  Maria  and  Elizabeth, 
grew  into  marvellously  comely  maidens,  their 
mother  urged  their  going  on  the  stage  to  aug- 
ment the  faulty  fortune.  They  .went  to  Dublin, 
and  there  were  kindly  received  by  Peg  Woffing- 
ton,  then  in  her  glory  as  Sir  Harry  Wildair, 
and  by  Tom  Sheridan,  manager  of  Dublin 
Theatre.  The  stage  had  not  then  become  the 
stepping-stone  to  the  ranks  of  the  nobility,  so 
the  girls  were  advised  to  adventure  socially,  with 


9O  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

their  faces  for  their  fortunes.  They  had  not  the 
dresses  to  be  presented  in  at  Dublin  Castle,  but 
Sheridan  supplied  these  from  the  resources  of 
the  green-room  wardrobe.  Attired  as  Lady 
Macbeth  and  as  Juliet  they  made  their  curt- 
sies to  the  Earl  of  Harrington,  the  then  Lord- 
Lieutenant. 

The  hostess  of  the  evening  was  the  handsome 
Lady  Caroline  Petersham,  bride  of  the  Earl's 
eldest  son.  Lady  Caroline  had  been  one  of  the 
"  Beauty  Fitzroys,"  and  had  been  a  favorite 
belle  in  town  before  her  marriage. 

"  When  Fitzroy  moves,  resplendent,  fair. 
So  warm  her  bloom,  sublime  her  air. 
Her  ebon  tresses  formed  to  grace 
And  heighten  while  they  shade  her  face." 

Walpole  wrote  of  her  in  his  poem  on  "  The 
Beauties."  The  raw  Connauofht  srirls  outshone 

O  O 

this  dazzling  hostess. 

Their  "  first  night "  was  an  auspicious  suc- 
cess. The  debut  was  applauded,  and  the  players 
praised.  They  were  adjudged  fitted  to  star 
the  social  capital,  so  to  London  they  went,  in 


DUCHESS    OF    HAMILTON.  9! 

June,  1751.  Their  reception  was  magical.  The 
West  End  went  almost  mad  over  them.  When 
they  appeared  at  Court,  the  aristocracy  present 
was  indecorous  in  its  efforts  to  view  the  domi- 
nant beauties.  Lords  and  ladies  clambered  on 
any  eminence  to  gaze.  The  crowd  surged  upon 
them,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  they  entered 
their  chairs  because  of  the  mob  outside.  The 
gayety  of  Vauxhall  Gardens  was  incomplete 
without  them. 

Their  campaign  was  a  short  and  eminently 
active  one ;  Elizabeth  triumphed  first.  At  a 
masquerade  at  Lord  Chesterfield's,  in  February, 
1752,  James,  the  sixth  Duke  of  Hamilton  and 
Brandon,  who  was  enamoured  of  the  younger 
Irish  girl,  wished  to  marry  her  at  once.  A 
clergyman  was  asked  to  perform  the  ceremony 
then  and  there.  He  objected  to  the  time  and 
place  and  the  absence  of  a  ring.  The  Duke 
threatened  to  send  for  the  Archbishop.  With 
the  ring  of  a  bed-curtain,  at  half  an  hour  past 
midnight,  the  wedding  took  place  in  Mayfair 
Chapel.  The  Scotch  were  enraged  at  the  alli- 
ance, which  became  an  unhappy  one.  The 


92  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Duke  was  vulgar,  debauched,  extravagant,  and 
"  damaged  in  person  and  fortune,"  yet,  withal, 
insolently  proud.  He  betook  himself  off  within 
six  years,  and  his  two  sons  by  the  Duchess 
became,  successively,  seventh  and  eighth  Dukes 
of  Hamilton ;  and  a  daughter  married  Edward, 
twelfth  Earl  of  Derby. 

The  dowager  was  less  than  a  year  in  widow's 
weeds  when  she  exchanged  them  for  more  straw- 
berry leaves.  She  had  two  ducal  offers,  from 
their  graces  of  Bridge  water  and  of  Argyll;  she 
accepted  the  latter.  In  March,  1759,  she  married 
John,  the  fifth  Duke  of  that  name.  Walpole's 
comment  on  this  was:  "Who  could  have  believed 
a  Gunning  would  unite  the  two  great  houses  of 
Campbell  and  Hamilton  ?  For  my  part  I  expect 
to  see  Lady  Coventry  Queen  of  Prussia.  I 
would  not  venture  to  marry  either  of  them  these 
thirty  years,  for  fear  of  being  shufHed  out  of  the 
world  prematurely,  to  make  room  for  the  rest  of 
their  adventurers.  The  first  time  Jack  Campbell 
carries  the  Duchess  into  the  Highlands,  I  am 
persuaded  that  some  of  his  second-sighted  sub- 
jects will  see  him  in  a  winding-sheet  with  a 


DUCHESS    OF    HAMILTON.  93 

train  of  kings  behind  him  as  long  as  those  in 
Macbeth."  And  again  :  "  A  match  that  would 
not  disgrace  Arcadia  ...  as  she  is  not  quite  so 
charming  as  her  sister,  I  do  not  know  whether 
it  is  not  better  than  to  retain  a  title  which  puts 
one  in  mind  of  her  beauty." 

The  Dukes  of  Argyll  —  Lords  of  the  Isles  — 
have  always  shown  a  partiality  for  beauties  as 
brides.  This  Duke's  father  married  the  beau- 
tiful Mary  Bellenden,  daughter  of  John,  Lord 
Bellenden,  — 

"Smiling  Mary,  soft  and  fair  as  down." 

She  is  mentioned  otherwise  as  by  Gay:- 

"  Bellenden  we  needs  must  praise, 
Who,  as  down  the  stairs  she  jumps, 
Sings  'Over  the  hills  and  far  away,' 
Despising  doleful  dumps." 

Walpole  says  she  was  never  mentioned  by 
her  contemporaries  but  as  the  most  perfect  crea- 
ture they  had  ever  known.  The  present  Duke 
wedded  that  charming  child,  Lady  Elizabeth 
Leveson  Gower,  who  sits  on  her  mother's  knee 
in  that  surpassingly  fine  picture  by  Lawrence, 


94  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

called  "  Lady  Gower  and  Child."  And  his  son 
is  allied  to  the  Princess  Louise,  the  most  comely 
of  Victoria's  daughters. 

After  her  sister's  death,  in  1760,  her  Grace 
of  Argyll  suffered  a  decline  in  health.  She  was 
ordered  abroad  for  change.  She  was  appointed 
to  accompany  the  Princess  Sophia  Charlotte  on 
her  journey  to  England  to  be  married  to  the 
King.  As  they  neared  the  ceremony  in  Lon- 
don, the  Princess  became  nervous.  Her  Grace 
essayed  to  quiet  her  fears.  "  Ah.  my  dear  Duch- 
ess, you  may  laugh  at  me,  but  you  have  been 
married  twice,"  said  the  Princess.  The  Duch- 
ess became  one  of  the  ladies  of  the  bedchamber, 
and  was  in  much  favor  with  the  Queen. 

In  1767,  her  father  died  at  Somerset  House, 
and  her  mother,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Gunning,  in 
1770.  There  were  three  sisters  in  the  family 
besides  our  heroines :  Sophia  Gunning  died,  an 
infant,  in  1737;  Lissy,  who  died  in  1752,  aged 
eight  years;  and  Catherine,  who  was  married,  in 
1769,  to  Robert  Travis  an  Irish  squire  in  her 
own  rank  of  life.  She  died,  too,  at  Somerset 
House,  in  1773,  where  she  was  an  upper  house- 


DUCHESS    OF    HAMILTON.  95 

keeper.  A  brother  entered  the  army,  fought  at 
Bunker  Hill,  and  became  a  major-general  in 
1787.  He  was  much  of  a  ladies'  man.  He 
married  a  Miss  Minfie,  author  of  some  novels, 
and  they  had  a  daughter  who  aspired  to  repeat 
the  successes  of  her  famous  aunts.  She  man- 
aged to  marry  the  Hon.  Stephen  Digby,  who  had 
lost  his  first  wife,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Ilchester, 
in  1787.  The  Duchess  of  Argyll  was  created, 
in  1776,  a  peeress  of  England  as  Baroness 
Hamilton  of  Hambledon  County,  Leicester,  and 
died  in  December,  1790.  By  her  second  mar- 
riage she  had  two  sons,  successively  Dukes  of 
Argyll,  and  two  daughters,  one  of  whom,  Lady 
Charlotte  Campbell,  attained  some  fame  as  a 
novelist  as  Lady  Charlotte  Bury,  she  having 
married  Colonel  John  Campbell  and  secondly 
Rev.  Edward  Bury. 

We  have  no  evidence  of  the  possession  of 
bright  Irish  wit  by  the  double-duchessed  beauty. 
Ingenuous  enthusiasm,  perfect  simplicity,  and 
unfailing  good  humor  ever  marked  her  manner, 
and  were  a  captivating  adjunct  to  her  great 
facial  charm.  Walpole  writes  of  a  pretty  sight 


96  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

when  their  Graces  of  Hamilton  and  of  Richmond 
with  Lady  Ailesbury  sitting  in  a  boat  together, 
and  proceeds  to  tell  of  the  suspected  jealousy  by 
she  of  Hamilton  of  the  beauty  of  his  niece, 
daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Walpole,  who  became 
the  bride  of  Earl  Waldegrave,  and  later  married 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  King's  youngest 
brother.  At  another  time,  when  a  lady  wrote 
telling  him  of  the  advent  of  a  beauty  who  was 
expected  to  outvie  the  Gunnings,  he  replies: 
"  There  was  to  have  been  a  handsomer  every 
summer  these  seven  years,  but  when  the  seasons 
come  they  all  seem  to  have  been  addled  by  the 
winter." 

One  day  the  housekeeper  of  Hampton  Court 
was  showing  the  palace  to  visitors  when  the 
sisters  were  there.  She  threw  open  the  door 
where  they  were  sitting,  saying,  "  This  is  our 
beauty-room."  The  pictures  and  galleries  were 
forgotten  by  the  crowd,  which  gazed  on  the  beau- 
ties instead. 

For  a  decade  their  beauty  was  regnant  in 
London.  They  were  not  politicians  as  were 
their  Graces  of  Gordon  and  Devonshire,  nor 


DUCHESS    OF    HAMILTON.  97 

had  they  the  ability  to  become  such.  Neither 
were  they  the  associates  of  brilliant,  intellectual 
men,  but  participants  in  the  gay,  vacuous, 
showy  society  of  the  rapid  set  of  the  aristocracy. 
The  elder  sister  gained  the  coronet  of  Coventry, 
but  her  vanity  caused  her  own  undoing ;  the 
younger  was  a  part  of  the  exhibition  of  "  Beauty 
and  the  Beast."  A  high  price  was  paid  for  her 
position  by  the  endurance  of  a  period  of  tyranny 
and  terror. 

Some  praise  must  be  accorded  the  beauties, 
for  at  a  time  of  much  licentiousness  of  a  profli- 
gate society  and  tolerated  coarsenesses,  the  sisters 
determinedly  kept  their  names  free  from  ignoble 
soil  and  scandal. 


MARIA 
COUNTE55^, 


"  Two  Irish  girls  of  no  fortune,  who  make 
more  noise  than  any  of  their  predecessors  since 
the  days  of  Helen,  and  who  are  declared  the 
handsomest  women  alive."  So  wrote  Walpole, 
in  June,  1751.  If  we  were  to  judge  of  their 
beauty  by  the  pictured  presentments  of  it,  we 
would  certainly  agree  with  "  our  Horace  "  when 
he  says  he  has  seen  much  handsomer  women 
than  either.  We  have  no  adequate  image  of 
their  surpassing  loveliness,  the  beholding  of 
which  would  cause  us  to  feel  how  merited  was 
their  meed  of  praise,  how  fair  the  contemporary 
comment  on  their  comeliness,  and  how  just 
the  wide  fame  of  a  beauty  which  tradition  has 
epitomized  for  us  in  the  phrase,  "  The  Fair 
Gunnings."  Though  the  print  publishers  of 
the  time  actively  issued  portraits,  we  feel  that 
none  of  them  picture  such  a  person  as  would 


IO2  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

set  society  and  the  whole  city  of  London  astir 
by  her  blazing  beauty. 

The  best-known  likenesses  are  the  various 
pictures  by  Francis  Cotes,  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Royal  Academy,  a  painter  of  considerable 
merit,  who  was  born  about  1725,  and  died  in 
1770.  It  is  said  that  Hogarth  preferred  him 
as  a  portrait  painter  to  Reynolds.  His  studio 
was  in  Cavendish  Square,  and  at  his  death  was 
taken  by  Romney;  and  it  was  while  he  worked 
there  that  Sir  Joshua  referred  to  his  rival  as 
"  the  man  in  Cavendish  Square."  The  studio 
was  later  occupied  by  Sir  Martin  Shee. 

Cotes's  picture  of  Maria  is  a  half  length  of  a 
modestly  dignified  lady/ having  no  tendency  at 
all  to  that  silliness  that  Walpole  insinuates  was 
characteristic  of  her.  The  face  is  oval,  the  eye- 
brows well  apart  and  distinctly  arched,  and  the 
hair  brushed  back  from  the  forehead  and  falling 
on  the  very  graceful  neck.  The  dress  is  cut 
low,  showing  a  delicately-moulded  bosom.  This 
picture  was  mezzo-tinted  by  McArdell ;  and 
there  is  another,  somewhat  similar,  reproduced 
superbly  by  Spooner.  His  principal  picture  of 


COUNTESS  OF  COVENTRY.  103 

Elizabeth  is  not  so  attractive  as  the  picture  of 
her  sister;  the  body  is  too  constrained  and  sym- 
metrically formal ;  the  dress  is  very  low  and 
edged  with  lace,  some  flowers  resting  on  her 
bosom.  The  neck  and  breast  have  not  the  suave 
grace  of  the  sister's.  This  has  been  engraved 
in  mezzo-tint  by  Houston.  Another  portrait  by 
Cotes  shows  her  with  fur  on  the  dress.  He 
also  painted  a  portrait  of  Kitty  in  a  low  dress 
sprigged  with  flowers,  with  a  sash,  and  ribbons 
at  the  back  of  the  head.  This  has  a  wooded 
landscape  background.  Below  the  print  of  this 
picture  is  engraved  these  lines:  — 

"  This  youngest  of  the  Graces  here  we  view 
So  like  in  Beauty  to  the  other  two 
Whoe'er  compares  their  Features  and  their  Frame 
Will  know  at  once  that  Gunning  is  her  name." 

There  is  an  engraved  picture  of  the  two  sisters 
together  —  based  on  Cotes's  portrayals  —  called 
"  The  Hibernian  Sisters."  Maria  is  sitting  on 
the  left,  looking  toward  the  right,  with  a  dog 
on  her  lap;  the  younger  is  on  the  right,  looking 
to  the  front,  and  holds  a  fan  in  her  hand.  In 


IO4  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

the  background  is  a  garden  wall.  Cupids  sur- 
mount the  picture.  The  inscription  is  in  this 
fashion :  - 

"  Hibernia  long  with  spleen  beheld 
Her  Favorite  Toasts  by  ours  excelled. 
Resolved  to  outvie  Britannia's  Fair 
By  her  own  Beauties,  — sent  a  pair." 

Reynolds  painted  them  both,  in  1753;  but  he 
failed  to  give  them  the  charm  we  would  expect. 
Unless  Sir  Joshua's  engravers  belie  him,  he  did 
not  make  Maria  even  ordinarily  fair  to  look 
upon.  These  pictures  are  not  classed  among 
his  masterpieces.  There  is  a  picture  of  Maria 
by  B.  Wilson  the  engraver,  made  before  she 
left  Ireland.  In  it  the  features  are  handsome 
and  the  figure  graceful,  though  over-dressed,  and 
the  whole  impression  is  of  a  matron  in  her 
thirties  rather  than  a  maid  in  her  teens.  The 
picture  we  give  of  her  is  from  a  whole-length 
by  Gavin  Hamilton,  a  Scotch  artist,  a  friend  of 
Burns,  born  in  Lanark  about  1730.  He  must 
have  been  a  precocious  genius,  for  this  pic- 
ture was  engraved  by  McArdell,  and  published 
in  1754. 


COUNTESS  OF  COVENTRY.          105 

Hamilton  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life 
in  Rome,  painting  classical  subjects  and  pursuing 
archaeological  investigations.  He  died  there,  in 
1797.  Portraiture  was  probably  a  pecuniary 
pursuit  before  the  classics  claimed  him.  His 
portraits  savor  somewhat  of  the  affectations  of 
the  "curtain  and  column"  school.  His  canvas 
of  Elizabeth  shows  her  standing  on  a  terrace 
with  a  low  dress  and  long  hair,  a  veil  loosely 
tied  across  her  chest.  Her  left  hand  rests  on 
the  head  of  a  greyhound.  There  is  a  seat  to 
the  left  and  trees  in  the  background. 

Houston  engraved  a  portrait  of  Maria  after  a 
drawing  by  J.  St.  Liotard.  This  is  a  three- 
quarter  length  figure.  Her  hair  is  in  large  plaits 
twined  with  a  muslin  veil  on  her  head.  The 
dress  is  open  at  the  throat,  showing  a  necklace. 
There  is  a  wide  belt  with  large  clasps.  Her 
left  elbow  rests  on  her  knee.  Perhaps  the  most 
satisfactory  pictures  of  the  Beauties  are  those  by 
Catharine  Read,  who  died,  in  1786;  and  who  is 
chiefly  known  by  her  winsome  delineations  of  the 
graces  of  the  Gunning  girls.  We  could  readily 
judge  from  these  that  the  girls  were  attractive. 


IO6  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

There  is  a  genial  graciousness  in  the  face  of 
she  of  Coventry,  while  the  Scotch  duchess  is 
possessed  of  a  persuasive  sweetness  of  mien. 
The  mob-cap  frames  a  face  almost  faultless  in 
the  regularity  of  its  features.  For  all  the  pleas- 
ant flavor  of  these  facial  charms,  there  is  absent 
that  peerless,  regal  loveliness,  that  compelling 
magnificence  of  presence,  that  hauteur  which 
dazzles  and  enthrals. 

The  originals  of  these  various  portraits  have 
been  retained  at  Croome  Court,  near  Worcester; 
the  seat  of  the  Coventry  family,  at  Inverary 
Castle,  Argyllshire ;  and  at  Hamilton  Palace. 

Three  weeks  after  the  romantic  marriage  of 
her  younger  sister,  Maria  Gunning  was  married 
to  George  William,  who  was  Lord  Deerhurst  — 
"  that  grave  young  Lord,"  Walpole  calls  him — • 
until  1750,  when  he  succeeded  to  the  Earldom 
of  Coventry.  He  had  been  dangling  about  her 
for  some  time,  and  seemed  nerved  to  the  wedding 
by  his  Grace  of  Hamilton's  precipitate  action. 
The  Earl  took  her  for  a  trip  on  the  Continent 
in  company  with  Lady  Caroline  Petersham, 
that  other  great  beauty.  Neither  caused  much 


COUNTESS    OF    COVENTRY.  1 07 

comment  abroad,  and  Paris  did  not  ratify  the 
repute  of  London.  My  Lady  was  at  a  disad- 
vantage from  her  ignorance  of  the  French  lan- 
guage. She  complained,  too,  of  the  arbitrary 
rule  of  her  husband  in  not  allowing  her  red 
nor  powder,  so  much  in  vogue  with  the  Parisian 
beauties.  It  is  told  how  he  saw  her  appear  at 
a  dinner  with  some  on,  and  took  out  his  hand- 
kerchief, and  there  tried  to  rub  it  off.  But  her 
fame  abated  not  in  England.  Crowds  continued 
to  mob  her  whenever  she  appeared  on  the  street. 
The  King  was  pleased  to  order  that  whenever 
my  Lady  Coventry  walked  abroad  she  should 
be  attended  by  a  guard  of  soldiers.  Shortly  after 
this  she  simulated  great  fright  at  the  curiosity 
of  the  mob,  and  asked  for  escort.  She  then 
paraded  in  the  park,  accompanied  by  her  hus- 
band and  Lord  Pembroke,  preceded  by  two  ser- 
geants, and  followed  by  twelve  soldiers.  Surely 
this  outdoes  the  advertising  genius  of  any  latter- 
day  American  actress !  A  shoemaker  at  Wor- 
cester gained  two  guineas  and  a  half  by  exhibit- 
ing at  a  penny  a  head  a  shoe  he  had  made  for 
the  Countess.  She  was  in  much  favor  at  Court, 


IO8  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

and  always  circulated  in  an  atmosphere  of  adula- 
tion and  sensation.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland 
was  an  admirer,  as  was  also,  more  emphatically, 
Fred  St.  John,  Viscount  Bolingbroke,  —  "Billy 
and  Bully"  these  two  blades  were  termed.  There 
was  rumor,  at  one  time,  of  the  Earl  seriously  re- 
senting the  attentions  of  Bolingbroke.  The  old 
King,  too,  showed  her  some  courtesies;  and  the 
most  oft-told  anecdote  of  her  is  about  His 
Majesty  asking  if  she  were  not  sorry  the  mas- 
querades were  over.  She  assured  him  she  was 
surfeited  with  pageants,  —  there  was  but  one  she 
wished  yet  to  see,  and  that  was  a  coronation. 
She  saw  it  not,  for  the  King  outlived  her  by  a 
fortnight.  Had  she  but  abstained  from  the  use 
of  paint  and  powder,  her  career  would  not  have 
ended  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-seven.  Blood- 
poisoning  came  from  the  use  of  it.  Her  beauty 
paled  rapidly.  My  lady  lay  on  a  couch,  a  pocket- 
glass  constantly  in  hand,  grieving  at  the  gradual 
decay.  The  room  was  darkened,  that  others 
might  not  discern  that  which  so  chagrined  her. 
Then  the  curtains  of  the  bed  were  drawn  to 
guard  her  from  pitying  gaze ;  and  then,  on  a 


COUNTESS  OF  COVENTRY.  IOQ 

September  day,  in  1 760,  the  pathetic  end  came. 
Over  ten  thousand  people  viewed  her  coffin. 
Sensationalism  even  after  the  drop  of  the  cur- 
tain !  The  Countess  left  four  children,  two  sons 
and  two  daughters.  Of  these,  Anne,  four  years 
old  at  her  mother's  death,  was  one  of  the  children 
whom  George  Selwyn  showed  much  kindness 
to.  The  Earl  married  again,  the  second  Count- 
ess being  Barbara,  daughter  of  Lord  St.  John  of 
Bletsoe.  George  William,  the  son  of  Maria, 
came  to  the  earldom  in  1809. 

In  an  ode  on  the  death    of    Maria   the   poet 
Mason  wrote :  — 

"  For  she  was  fair  beyond  your  brightest  bloom 

(This  Envy  owns,  since  now  her  bloom  is  fled)  : 
Fair  as  the  Forms  that,  wove  in  Fancy's  loom, 

Float  in  light  vision  round  the  Poet's  head. 
Whene'er  with  soft  serenity  she  smiled, 

Or  caught  the  orient  blush  of  quick  surprise, 
How  sweetly  mutable,  how  brightly  wild, 

The  liquid  lustre  darted  from  her  eyes  ! 
Each  look,  each  motion,  waked  a  new-born  grace 

That  o'er  her  form  its  transient  glory  cast : 
Some  lovelier  wonder  soon  usurped  the  place, 

Chased  by  a  charm  still  lovelier  than  the  last." 


IN  these  latter  days  can  we  imagine  a  lawsuit, 
costing  contestants  thousands  of  pounds,  over 
the  right  to  a  certain  heraldic  charge?  In  the 
fourteenth  century  Sir  Robert  Grosvenor  was 
the  defendant  in  such  a  suit,  and  we  read  of 
Chaucer,  John  of  Gaunt,  Owen  Glendower,  and 
Hotspur  being  witnesses  before  the  High  Court 
of  Chivalry.  Sir  Robert  established  his  defence, 
and  since  those  days  the  Grosvenors  have  ever 
held  a  high  rank  in  the  nobility  of  England. 
Quite  as  proud  a  patrician  position  was  held 
through  the  centuries  by  the  family  of  Gower. 
In  the  early  part  of  this  century,  the  heir  of  the 
Grosvenors  espoused  the  most  beautiful  daughter 
of  the  House  of  Gower,  —  Lady  Elizabeth  Mary 
Leveson  Gower.  This  lady  was  the  youngest 
daughter  of  George,  the  second  Marquis  of 


1  14  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

Stafford,  who  married,  in  1785,  Elizabeth,  who 
was  Countess  of  Sutherland  and  Baroness 
Strathnaver  in  her  own  right.  The  Marquis 
was  created  Duke  of  Sutherland  in  1833. 

The  Lady  Elizabeth  Mary  was  born  in  1797, 
and  married,  in  1819,  Robert,  Viscount  Bel- 
grave,  eldest  son  of  the  second  Earl  of  Grosvenor. 
The  portrait  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  was 
painted  in  the  year  preceding  her  marriage. 

The  Marquisate  of  Westminster  had  been 
created  in  1831,  and  in  1845,  when  the  Vis- 
count's father  died,  he  succeeded  to  the  title. 
He  had  entered  Parliament  in  1818  as  member 
for  Chester.  He  spoke  but  rarely  in  the  House, 
although  a  hard  worker  on  committees.  He 
greatly  improved  his  vast  London  property,  and 
had  the  credit  of  administering  his  estate  with 
a  combination  of  intelligence  and  generosity 
seldom  seen.  Of  reserved  habits  and  inexpen- 
sive tastes,  he  was  averse  to  ostentation  and 
extravagance.  He  died  in  1869.  His  successor 
was  his  son  (born  in  1825)  the  present  Duke, 
who  was  elevated  to  a  dukedom  in  1874.  He 
is  one  of  the  wealthiest  peers  in  the  kingdom, 


COUNTESS    GROSVENOR.  115 

is  a  man  of  great  taste,  and  has  patronized  the 
arts  with  almost  a  Medician  munificence. 

The  seat  of  the  family  is  the  renowned  Eaton 
Hall,  near  Chester;  that  stately  mansion  set  in 
the  centre  of  a  country  rich  in  pastoral  beauty. 
Its  enlargement  and  beautification  was  begun 
by  the  second  Earl  in  1802,  and  has  been 
carried  on  by  its  present  lord  until  it  is  now 
the  most  magnificent  of  all  the  modern  man- 
sions of  the  nobility.  G.  F.  Watts's  heroic 
equestrian  statue  of  Hugh  Lupus,  the  founder 
of  the  family  and  a  nephew  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  challenges  admiration  as  one  enters 
the  grounds.  There  is  no  great  picture  gallery 
in  the  Hall,  for  that  is  at  Grosvenor  House 
in  London,  but  the  family  portraits  are  here. 
Let  into  panels  of  the  dining-room  are  por- 
traits from  the  time  of  the  first  Earl,  who  was 
painted  by  Gainsborough.  The  Viscount  Bel- 
grave  and  his  lady  were  painted  by  Pickers- 
gill,  in  1825,  —  this  picture  of  the  latter  being 
much  inferior  to  Lawrence's,  —  while  the  pres- 
ent generation  was  painted  almost  wholly  by 
Millais,  —  that  of  Constance,  the  Duke's  first 


Il6  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

wife,  being  especially  fine.     Leslie,  in   1833,  ex- 
ecuted a  group  of  the  Grosvenor  family. 

Lawrence  and  Hoppner  were  to  the  regency 
what  Reynolds,  Gainsborough,  and  Romney  were 
to  the  early  days  of  the  reign  of  George  III., 
as  painters  of  the  patrician  beauties.  What  a 
marvellous  mass  of  records  of  fair  women  these 
five  have  left  us!  —  Reynolds,  supreme  in  style, 
painting  the  character  as  seen  through  the  fair 
mask  of  the  flesh ;  Gainsborough,  superbly  pic- 
turesque, and  a  faithful  limner  withal ;  Romney, 
impressively  picturesque,  too,  a  fine  colorist,  im- 
aginative, and  but  now,  a  century  later,  coming 
into  his  proper  meed  of  praise ;  Lawrence,  ele- 
gant, charming,  —  a  courtier  indeed;  Hoppner, 
through  many  years  a  close  rival  of  Lawrence. 
To  Hoppner  we  are  indebted  for  the  visible 
evidence  of  the  beauty  of  many  who  had  repute 
as  fair  women.  There  is  that  piquant  Jane 
Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Oxford,  who  greets  us 
in  the  National  Gallery.  Then  that  dark-eyed 
and  winsome  Lady  Kenyon,  who  was  one  of  the 
reigning  belles,  on  canvas,  at  the  Grafton  Gallery 
show  in  London  this  year.  In  this  exhibit,  too, 


COUNTESS    GROSVENOR.  I  I  7 

was  his  "  Mademoiselle  Hillsberg,"  -  -  a  tall  and 
dark  dancing  woman,  which  he  regarded  as  his 
best  work.  Then  there  is  that  group  of  noble 
dames  by  him,  which  were  engraved  by  Charles 
Wilkin  and  published  under  the  title  "  Bygone 
Beauties,"  —  Lady  Charlotte  Duncombe;  Vis- 
countess St.  Asaph ;  Lady  Charlotte  Campbell, 
daughter  of  Elizabeth  Gunning;  Viscountess 
Andover;  Lady  Langham ;  the  Countess  of 
Euston,  one  of  the  three  beautiful  Ladies 
Waldegrave,  painted  by  Reynolds ;  the  Duchess 
of  Rutland.  These  are  indeed  "a  select  series 
of  ladies  of  rank  and  fashion."  And  with  these 
must  be  classed  that  sweet  ideal  face  of  Mrs. 
Arbuthnot,  known  as  "  Marcia."  At  this  late 
date  it  gives  us  greeting  from  how  many  a 
parlor  wall !  Its  tender  charm  makes  perpetual 
appeal  to  the  passer-by  from  how  many  a  print- 
shop  window  ! 

There  seems  to  have  been  bitter  feeling 
between  Hoppner,  who  was  an  intense  Whig, 
and  Lawrence,  who  knew  no  politics,  but  was 
all  things  to  all  men.  "  The  ladies  of  Lawrence 
show  a  gaudy  dissoluteness  of  taste,  and  some- 


Il8  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

times  trespass  on  moral  as  well  as  professional 
chastity,"  and  "  Lawrence  shall  paint  my  mis- 
tress and  Phillips  my  wife,"  were  the  two  rapier 
phrases  Hoppner  thrust  at  his  rival.  But  it  is 
recorded  that  thenceforth  Lawrence's  commis- 
sions from  fair  sitters  multiplied. 

Sir  Thomas  was  a  finished  flatterer.  No  man 
ever  knew  better,  except  it  was  Lely,  how  to  pay 
the  compliment  of  the  brush.  This  form  is  the 
substantial,  the  lasting  compliment  for  which 
golden  guineas  are  gladly  paid.  Grace  and 
elegance  are  the  hall-mark  of  his  every  picture. 
But  the  artist  was  a  courtier  in  speech  and 
manners  as  well,  and  this  got  him  into  trouble 
once.  He  was  attentive  to  the  ill-used  Princess 
Caroline,  —  markedly  attentive  !  A  royal  com- 
mission inquired  into  his  conduct,  but  absolved 
him  from  the  charges  of  wrongdoing.  When 
Lady  Grosvenor,  who  had  become  Marchioness 
of  Westminster,  was  an  old  lady,  in  1881,  she 
wrote  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Leveson  Gower  her 
recollections  of  the  painter:  "  His  manners  were 
what  is  called  extremely  'polished'  (not  the  fault 
of  the  present  times).  He  wore  a  large  cravat, 


COUNTESS    GROSVENOR.  I  19 

and  had  a  tinge  about  him  of  the  time  of 
George  IV.,  pervading  his  general  demeanor. 
...  I  should  not  say  he  was  amusing,  but  what 
struck  me  most,  during  my  two  hours  sitting  in 
Russell  Square,  was  the  perfection  of  the  draw- 
ing of  his  portraits.  Before  any  color  was  put 
on,  the  drawing  itself  was  so  perfectly  beautiful 
that  it  seemed  almost  a  sin  to  add  any  color." 
This  portrait  of  her,  which  was  painted  at  this 
one  sitting,  is  considered  the  very  best  Lawrence 
ever  painted.  The  head  has  distinction  and  hau- 
teur, albeit  the  face  is  sweetly  ingenuous.  And 
the  eyes!  Well,  Sir  Thomas  always  excelled 
here !  Never,  since  Titian,  has  painter  given 
us  such  "strange  sweet  maddening  eyes,"  — 

"  Fathomless  dusk  by  night,  the  day  lets  in 
Glimmer  of  emerald,  —  thus  those  eyes  of  hers  ! " 

This  picture  now  hangs  in  the  gallery  of  Staf- 
ford House,  and  was  mezzotinted  by  Cousins,  in 
1844,  and  included  in  the  published  collection 
of  the  artist's  works.  This  volume  is  representa- 
tive of  the  artist  It  opens  with  that  perennially 
delightful  picture  of  the  "  Calmady  Children," 


I2O  SOME    OLD-TIME    BEAUTIES. 

called  "  Nature,"  —  one  of  the  very  best  and 
sweetest  representations  of  child  life  ever  made. 
Here  is  the  elemental  artlessness  of  nature,  and 
here  the  beatitude  of  innocence.  Another  child- 
picture  is  the  portrait  of  Lady  Emily  Cowper, 
afterwards  Lady  Ashley,  called  "  The  Rosebud." 
Among  the  ladies  shown  are  Lady  Leicester, 
Lady  Lyndhurst,  and  Lady  Georgiana  Agar 
Ellis,  the  picture  of  the  latter  being  surpassing 
in  its  elegance.  That  majestically  maternal  pic- 
ture is  here  of  Lady  Gower  and  Lady  Elizabeth 
Leveson  Gower,  —  not  our  Elizabeth  Mary,  but 
she  who  became  Duchess  of  Argyll. 

The  Countess  of  Grosvenor  was  a  lady  of 
high  character  and  most  affable  manners,  and 
held  her  exalted  position  with  a  dignity  of  de- 
meanor and  a  bearing  worthy  of  a  descent  from 
the  noble  Gowers,  lords  of  Sittenham.  Her 
residence  latterly  was  Motcombe  House,  near 
Shaftesbury,  Dorsetshire.  She  lived  on  until 
our  own  day,  dying  at  the  age  of  ninety-four. 

In  1840-41  she  accompanied  her  husband  on 
a  yacht  voyage  in  the  Mediterranean,  an  enter- 
taining account  of  which  she  published  in  two 
volumes. 


COUNTESS    GROSVENOR.  121 

She  was  a  keen  politician,  as  so  many  ladies 
of  rank  are  in  England.  In  1873  Lady  West- 
minster's son,  then  Lord  Robert  Grosvenor, 
spoke  in  favor  of  the  Liberal  candidate  for 
Shaftesbury.  The  candidate  told  her  tenants 
that  he  believed  her  ladyship  was  not  averse  to 
his  candidature.  It  was  putting  his  fingers  into 
the  den  of  the  apparently  sleeping  lioness.  She 
wrote  sharpiy  :  "  I  beg  to  undeceive  you.  I  am 
most  anxious  for  the  success  of  the  conservative 
cause,  connected  as  it  is  with  the  preservation  of 
our  religion  and  our  loyalty  to  our  Queen." 


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